OK, I understand that. Thanks for the clarification.
No problem.
To further elucidate my statement is a well known theory called "Fundamental Attribution Theory."
"In social psychology, fundamental attribution error, also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational explanations for an individual's observed behavior while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations for their behavior."
So, if you're driving down the road, and someone cuts you off, you say "that guy is an asshole." That statement is making an assumption based on dispositional-personality based factors, that is, the guy is an asshole. However, the guy could simply be cutting you off because he has to get home to his child who is sick (situational explanation). We have no evidence of that guy in the car, whether hes really an asshole or hes driving fast to get home to his sick kid. Yet, we automatically assume hes inherently an asshole without taking into consideration external reasons for why he may be driving fast (e.g., sick child, wife pregnant, etc).
Another example is how central traits, such as warm and cold traits, drastically change our perception of others. Ash conducted a study where he presented two people with similar characteristics, except he assigned one with a "warm" vs "cold" trait:
Brad is industrious, critical,
warm, practical, and determined.
Phil is industrious, critical,
cold, practical, and determined.
"As you can see, the descriptions are identical except for the presence of “warm” and “cold.” In a classic study, Solomon Asch (1946) found that people described with these two sets of traits were perceived very differently—the “warm” person very positively and the “cold” person very negatively."
The fact that Brad was "warm" and Phil "cold" drastically changed people's opinions of them, despite all other traits being equal. Similarly, our opinions of Trump would be different if he was a democrat vs republican or businessman vs politician.
This often plays out in other ways. For example, many gettbiggers say Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is physically ugly. However, if she was a gun-lovin, bible totin', hardcore republican, the same people would say she is "hot and gorgeous."
I have never been interested in politics. In fact, Ive never voted. I dont care that Trump is president. My current interest lies in the psychology behind politics and tribalism. Two good books to read: "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" and "Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them."
Or, any book by Vamik Volkan: "Bloodlines," "Killing in the Name of Identity: A Study of Bloody Conflicts," and "Blind Trust: Large Groups and Their Leaders in Times of Crisis and Terror"
