Dispositional or situational

Apart from walking, my everyday means of transport is a bike. In the UK I share this habit with less than 3% of the population. We're in such a minority  that we invariably get described as keen.

Whether keen or merely habitual we definitely form a distinct sub group of the population. A sub group with its own social identity. Way back in 1997 the Transport Research Laboratory produced a report called "Attitudes to Cycling:a qualitative study and conceptual framework". Among other things it looked at the ways in which our social identity, in this context our social identity as "cyclists" or as "motorists", influenced our attitudes towards each other. (Do bear in mind that each of us has far more than one social identity; I'm a cyclist, a Leeds United supporter, a scientist.....) In particular, the TRL noted that within our car dominated culture "cyclists" had low status and "motorists" high status. This diagram from the report illustrates this.

But, and this is now getting to the point of this entry, members of each particular group, lets call it the in group, tend to treat members of the other group, the out group, in a fundamentally different way. 

Those who identify as motorists tend to apply negative qualities to all cyclists; they're always going through red lights, they don't obey the rules of the road, they're self righteous, they don't use lights, they cycle on the pavement. Now of course, some cyclists do behave in these ways but by no means all of them. 

When it comes to the behaviour of fellow motorists, this tends to be explained in terms of the situation that they find themselves in; they were going too fast because they've got a sick child in hospital, they parked on the pavement because they were in a hurry and there wasn't a space nearby.

What's happening here is a tendency to see members of the out group's behaviour as a disposition on their part (that's what cyclists are like) and that of the in group as a result of the situation they find themselves in.

Of course, this doesn't just apply to us as cyclists, motorists, heavy metal fans or members of the Bullingdon Club. We tend to treat members of the in group in terms of the situation they find themselves in and members of the out group in terms of their general disposition. 

Perhaps it time to remember that there are 7 billion intersecting stories out there and if someone doesn't behave as you might wish it might be better to assume that there's a bit of their back story that you're missing rather than just assuming that that's what people like that are like.