Humans naturally judge other people's mistakes as massive character flaws while blaming our own exact same mistakes on bad luck, famously known as the fundamental attribution error.

A closer look

Humans naturally judge other people's mistakes as massive character flaws while blaming our own exact same mistakes on bad luck, famously known as the fundamental attribution error. If a stranger cuts you off in traffic, they are obviously a sociopathic monster who hates society, but if you cut someone off, it was only because the sun was in your eyes and you are running late for a very important meeting. Our brains are incredibly generous when acting as our own defense attorneys, but instantly turn into ruthless, medieval executioners the moment somebody else slips up. We navigate the world fundamentally convinced that we are the misunderstood protagonists of a grand, complex tragedy, while everybody else is just a poorly programmed, deeply flawed background extra placed there purely to ruin our morning commute!