Editing Persuasion (section)

=== Attribution theory ===
{{Main|Attribution (psychology)}}
Humans attempt to explain the actions of others through either dispositional attribution or situational attribution.

[[Dispositional attribution]], also referred to as internal attribution, attempts to point to a person's traits, abilities, motives, or dispositions as a cause or explanation for their actions. A citizen criticizing a president by saying the nation is lacking economic progress and health because the president is either lazy or lacking in economic intuition is utilizing a dispositional attribution.

[[Situational attribution]], also referred to as external attribution, attempts to point to the context around the person and factors of his surroundings, particularly things that are completely out of his control.  A citizen claiming that a lack of economic progress is not a fault of the president but rather the fact that he inherited a poor economy from the previous president is situational attribution.

A [[fundamental attribution error]] occurs when people wrongly attribute either a shortcoming or accomplishment to internal factors while disregarding all external factors. In general, people use dispositional attribution more often than situational attribution when trying to explain or understand the behavior of others. This happens because we focus more on the individual when we lack information about that individual's situation and context. When trying to persuade others to like us or another person, we tend to explain positive behaviors and accomplishments with dispositional attribution and negative behaviors and shortcomings with situational attributions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/fundamental_attribution_error.htm|title=Fundamental Attribution Error|work=changingminds.org}}</ref>