Why We’re Bad at Guessing Other People’s Motives

The video explores the complexities of understanding people's motivations and behaviors, highlighting the challenges of empathetic accuracy and the influence of various biases. It discusses how behaviors can stem from different motivations and how biases like correspondence bias and ultimate attribution error affect our judgments. The video also suggests strategies to overcome these biases, such as considering decisions from others' perspectives and directly asking about their thoughts.

What is empathetic accuracy?

• The skill of understanding others' thoughts and feelings

• The ability to predict future events accurately

• The habit of making decisions based on emotions

• The tendency to judge others based on their actions

Which bias involves assuming people's actions reflect their personality rather than their situation?

• Correspondence bias

• Ultimate attribution error

• Empathetic accuracy

• Assumed similarity bias

What is the ultimate attribution error?

• Attributing negative behavior to personality in out-groups

• Assuming others are similar to us

• Interpreting others' actions as hostile

• Overestimating the influence of extreme traits

How can we reduce bias when assessing others' decisions?

• By ignoring situational factors

• By assuming others are like us

• By considering the most extreme traits

• By making the same decision ourselves first

What does the assumed similarity bias lead us to believe?

• Extreme traits are the most influential

• Others share our motivations and reasons

• People are fundamentally different from us

• Others' actions are always hostile