Trading Places: The Fundamental Attribution Error

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Jonathan Gesner Movie Project I am doing my movie project on the movie Trading Places by the way it is one of my favorite movies to watch. Though Trading Places is a comedy there are various psychological aspects seen in the movie. The only ones I was only able to verify using the textbook were fundamental attribution error, and self-complexity The Fundamental Attribution Error which is our tendency to explain someone's behavior based on internal factors, such as personality or disposition, and to underestimate the influence that external factors, such as situational influences, have on another person's behavior. I will abbreviate it as FAE is clearly seen in the very beginning of the movie and can be seen throughout it until its ending. Billy Ray …show more content…

Winthrope has his briefcase knocked out from his hand by Valentine. Winthrope immediately accuses Valentine of attempting to rob him and calls for help from the patrolling police walking their beat. Valentine then runs into the Heritage Club trying to avoid getting arrested and the police quickly follow suit and is quickly arrested after a run around. This is when the Duke brothers decide to create an experiment using Valentine and Winthrope. The Duke brothers argue over the causes of the behaviors exhibited. Randolph Duke believes that Valentine is not a bad person, he only acts the way he does due to the pressure of the situation that he is in. He then makes the statement that if they put Winthrope in the same circumstance, he would behave the same exact way. Mortimer, though believes Valentine is by his nature a bad person and that Winthrope would turn out successful, even if he were put into the same circumstances as Valentines. Mortimer also falls into the FAE. If we were looking at nature versus nurture debate, Mortimer is clearly siding with the natural side. Mortimer, thinks of Winthrope in his

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