Jumping To Conclusions – Look Before You Leap
Published on: 07/10/2015
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Mary Rafferty Founder
Mary Rafferty Founder
Mary rafferty

Mary Rafferty is an ICF credentialed Leadership Coach and Advanced level Mediator (MII) with many years of experience supporting leaders and managers to build high quality robust relationships in their teams and a culture of open and transparent communication.

She has coached and/or trained hundreds of managers to nurture better relationships – engaging constructively in giving feedback, motivating their teams, navigating difficult conversations as well as developing their own resilience, clarity and flow, becoming more decisive and overcoming their inner critic. 

Mary holds an Honours Degree in Education, a Masters Degree with Distinction in Social Science and has attended a wide variety of specialised trainings in the field of conflict resolution.

Mary Rafferty writes:

Imagine this situation: you are walking down the corridor at work and a colleague is coming the other way. You say ‘hi’ in a bright and friendly tone and this person barely looks at you, has a cross look on their face and hardly greets you. What assumptions would you make about why the person acts like this? Would you immediately think ‘what a rude and unfriendly person who is very arrogant’? If so, you have just made what is known as a Fundamental Attribution Error, one of the psychological theories that might explain how a conflict situation might get started or escalates.

Attribution theory tells us that people make inferences about others behaviours based on 2

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 07/10/2015
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