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.