ultimate attribution error
the tendency for persons from one group (the ingroup) to determine that any bad acts by members of an outgroup—for example, a racial or ethnic minority group—are caused by internal attributes or traits rather than by outside circumstances or situations, while viewing their positive behaviors as merely exceptions to the rule or the result of luck. Conversely, ingroup members will overestimate the effects of their own perceived internal attributes—for example, intelligence—and underplay situational forces when evaluating their successes, and they will place more emphasis on external factors when explaining their failures or faults. See also fundamental attribution error; group-serving bias. [first described in 1979 by U.S. psychologist Thomas F. Pettigrew]