Fundamental Attribution Error in a Bar

I recently fell victim to the fundamental attribution error (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2008) in my job as a bar tender. When people commit this social phenomenon they blame bad or unexpected situations on the person or persons who it is happening to and disregard circumstantial or situational effects. So I was bar tending this past Monday night at a local bar here in Georgetown, and the Cowboys were playing the Eagles, which was supposed to be a good game. It was busy all night because it actually was a very good game and people like to drink while they watch their football games. When I get busy behind the bad I get very cognitively loaded because I am thinking about so many things at once. It was towards the end of the game and I had been on my feet running around the bar for more than a couple hours and I hear a scream and some commotion in front of the bar. Someone had vomited all over himself and on the floor. I was grossed out but knew I had to control the situation. I got the bus boy to clean it and up and the guy went to his car to get a new shirt. I was still busy with other customers when the same guy came and asked me for another beer. I immediately told him that he was cut off and it would be irresponsible for me to serve him another drink. In my head I was thinking to myself that he was an irresponsible drunk who could not control his alcohol and therefore, I was not going to continue serving him. In the state of Texas under TABC law I have the right to refuse service for anyone and it is actually illegal for me to serve an intoxicated person. However, I was blaming the event on the person and did not think about the situational factors that came into play. The guy ended up leaving pretty angry. Later I after the game was over and everything was calming down the guys friends approached me and told me what had happened. It turns out that this guy was not drunk but actually threw up because his friends had pressured him to take a shot of our house tequila. Our well tequila is actually very hard to take shots of because it goes down very rough. This guy had taken the shot wrong and some of the nasty tequila got caught in his throat which promoted a gag reflex and caused him to throw it up. His friends said that it was only the second drink he had all night. This is an example of the fundamental attribution error because I ignored the situational circumstances (him being sober and getting the shot caught in his throat) and only focused on the personal attributes which I assumed (that he was a drunk who did not know his limits). It is also possible that if I would not have been so busy and therefore cognitively loaded, I would have slowed down and asked what had happened and maybe realized that it was not him being irresponsible and let him stay and have a few more beers. I ended up feeling pretty bad about jumping to conclusions but in the bar tending industry sometimes one has to make snap judgements and it just so happens that this time, I was a little too harsh.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., Markus, H. R. (2008). Social Psychology. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 107 - 110.

The "Hot Hand" Effect In Poker

Before I read the article by Gilovich, I have been noticing the hot hand effect (Gilovich, 1991) in Texas hold'em, a popular poker game. I play every week at a local bar in a free tournament where the winner gets a cash prize. I have also been playing the game at with my friends for years. In texas hold'em everyone is dealt two cards and then can use five community cards to form the best five card hand. The two cards that people are dealt and the five community cards are completely random every hand even though it may not seem so. It always seems that people will catch good cards in streaks, similar to a player in veagas rolling good dice over and over again at a craps table. On the other hand, it is also the case where it seems that people will catch bad cards all at once also. I took research methods and I know that everything is completley random and having good and bad cards is simply good or bad luck. However, when I am sitting at a poker table and the player across from me is continually getting good hands and I have to repeadely fold my hand because it is not strong enough, it gets harder and harder to beleive it is simply dumb luck. Eventually, I will play a bad hand and most likely loose money simply becuase I am getting frusterated and bored. These feelings I beleive are a direct result of the hot hand effect. Even though it is proven not to be true, and I know that it can't be the case that the universe is picking me to have bad cards and for the other guy to have good cards, I just find my self trying to find someone or something to blame for my bad luck. Last week was an excellent example of this. I was playing at table with a group of people, and there was one guy who was winning all the pots. In poker there are two ways to win a pot, either be really good at the actual game, or to just have really good luck. This guy was not very skilled, but still winning everything. I sat there folding my hand over and over again while I watched this other guy get good cards almost everytime and also would hit good cards in the community cards to go with the cards in his hand. At the end of an hour i had not played one hand and had almost blinded myself out of the game (that means betting the minimum bet everytime I have to), but the other guy had almost kicked everyone out by winning their money with many good hands. I know he was getting lucky because I have played with him before and he is not a very good player. I eventually played a hand that was not very good, because that was all I could get, and lost feeling very discouraged and puzzled at what I had just experienced. This just shows that even though the hot hand effect is not a real effect, I can see how easy it is for people like very knowledgeable basketball coaches to strongly beleive in it.

Gilovich, T. (1991). Something out of nothing: The misperception and misrepresentation of random data. How we Know What isn't so: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, The Free Press, 9-21.