Chapter 2 Passage

"Interestingly enough, the common tendency to blame ourselves for failures with everyday objects goes against the normal attributions people make. In general, it has been found that people attribute their own problems to the environment, those of other people to their personalities.
It seems natural for people to blame their own misfortunes on the environment. It seems equally natural to blame other people's misfortunes on their personalities. Just the opposite attribution, by the way, is made when things go well. When things go right, people credit their own forceful personalities and intelligence.... The onlookers do the reverse. When they see things go well for someone else, they credit the environment (Norman 42)." This passage was very interesting to me because of how true it is. People often don't give others the benefit of the doubt that they might just be having a bad day. I try never to judge someone based on one or two particular instances because everyone has a bad day once in a while. I thought the opposite was more interesting because I never realized how individuals give themselves credit for doing things well. It happens all the time and I thought it was ironic the negative is a reverse of the positive.

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic, 1988.