What's the matter with that person?

I've been reading Crucial Confrontations.

So there is dispositional versus situational attribution. Essentially, this refers to the explanation that we make to explain why people behave a certain way, usually why people behave a certain bad way.

There is a tendancy for people to attribute behaviour to underlying personality or disposition as opposed to situation. This is so common that in psychology circles, it is known as the Fundamental Attribution Error. This should all actually be causing a sense of familiarity for anyone who has taken an introductory psychology course.

In any case, on to the story...

...

I had boarded the plane from Calgary to Vancouver, lugged my heavy backpack, with my work laptop, into the overhead bin, and shoved the more conventional "laptop bag", with my gaming "laptop" (don't actually try to put this on your lap), under the seat in front.

Being a veteran air traveller, I'm in the aisle seat. No rookie window seats for me! That seat is taken by an Older Lady, probably in her late 50s, early 60s, with fully white hair. She's quietly reading a book.

Along comes, I'd almost say the stereotypical, young Australian couple. Later on, in polite conversation, I would learn that they had just been celebrating their honeymoon, skiing at Lake Louise.

In any case, young man looks at ticket. 14A. Older lady is sitting in 14A. Here's my best recollection of the conversation:

Young Man: "Excuse me, could I see your ticket, I think I'm in 14A"
Older Lady: "I don't know why you want to see it. I'm in this seat."

Older Lady looks in purse and pulls out ticket. It seems to show 14A. Young Man shows his ticket. It shows 14A. Young Lady shows her ticket. It also shows 14A...

Me: "You all have the same seat number."

At this point you should be realising how perceptive I am.

Older Lady: "Well that's the airline's fault, not mine. And I was here first."

Forlorn look on young couple's faces.

Young Lady, retorting: "Thank you for your help and understanding."

Young couple leaves. Older Lady gets back to book. I start thinking about dispositional versus situational attribution...

Skip ahead a few minutes. Flight Attendant comes by.

Flight Attendant: "Excuse me. Could I please see your boarding pass?"

Reluctantly, Older Lady goes back into purse.

Older Lady: "It's the airline that messed up. I don't know why I need to deal with this."
Flight Attendant: "I understand but we need to check boarding passes when we have duplicate seats."

Older Lady shows ticket.

Flight Attendant: "That shows 25A."

Older Lady looks at ticket in disbelief.

Older Lady: "I'm sorry, I was sure that it showed 14A there before."
Flight Attendant: "That's okay. It's why we check boarding passes when there are duplicates."

...

So who was the hero and villain in this story?

Well, obviously I was the hero but otherwise, the question is a red herring. It is more important to ask what Crucial Confrontations calls the "humanising question":

Instead of asking, "What's the matter with that person?" they ask, "Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person do that?"