Emphasizing personal responsibility without making the attribution error.

[fiddlersinmyhouse aka Elizabeth Wellburn]

Heroic actions often seem to be related to an individual's disposition -- Zimbardo challenges us to think about this a bit differently. He states that anyone can learn to be ready to do something heroic when the situation arises. And he is concerned about the attribution error.... e.g. when societies "believe that dispositions matter more than situations" (p 212 of The Lucifer Effect). If we attribute heroism to some rare and special disposition, we may think it's not in our repertoire.

Research (e.g. Zimbardo's, Milgram's etc.) has shown the incredible power of situations above and beyond disposition and has also shown that de-individualization (mindlessly becoming a role) can lead to accepting or participating in evil. How can educators promote individual responsibility (and individualism) without making the attribution error? How can we acknowledge the power of situations to foster the learning that is required (and if the situational factors have negative consequences, how can we change the situation?)

[Matt Langdon]

I think the goal needs to be to make the disposition normal - not rare. The disposition to act should be normal. I spoke to a lot of kids today about doing the little good things every day required to put themselves in the right frame of mind for when someone needs them to be heroic.

So instead of attributing heroic acts to rare people, we need to point out how normal people do these things every day.

Does that make sense?

[fiddlersinmyhouse aka Elizabeth Wellburn]

Thanks Matt and I absolutely agree with what you say.

However, I still feel a bit muddled when trying to fit this with what Phil says about societies promoting individualism falling into the trap of the attribution error. Is the solution maybe as simple as rethinking the disposition to view it as more fluid than, say, Western society has tended to see it? Can a fluid disposition be resistant to unwanted influences?

[Matt Langdon]

One thing we talked about at Phil's conference two weekends ago was the idea that heroism was a reaction to a situation that clashed with the hero's individual values set. So when you see something as "off" you react to correct it. We're trying to teach people to identify those "off" moments and react appropriately.

So I think that the disposition people need is simply to correct wrongs. Those wrongs will be different to different people, but also in different situations. Rather than the disposition to act being what resists unwanted influences, it is the person's internal character judgments that need to be able to resist.

I keep thinking I'm not quite answering your questions, so sorry if that's the case.

[fiddlersinmyhouse aka Elizabeth Wellburn]

I think this gets pretty close to answering my question so thank you again...