Proof that Situational Ethics Promotes Harmony

Recently, a person talking loudly on her cellphone for 16 hours led to her removal from an Amtrak train. Why? Because she was talking on the quiet car, which is reserved for people wishing to travel in peace and quiet.

The rules enforced in the quiet car are: keep conversation to a minimum out of respect for other people's wish to have peace and quiet.

When other people on the car objected to her loud talking, she didn't stop talking on her cellphone. She instead chose to get belligerent, which led to conflict between her and other passengers and eventually the conductor getting involved.

To avoid conflict with other people in the quiet car, the rule of thumb is simply to assume that the person talking loudly is ignorant of the rules governing the quiet train.

"Of course, like in any conflict, much depends not only on the type of person you confronts, but also on the way in which you communicates your message. As evidenced in the example above, by the time the annoyed passenger speaks up, he/she has already decided on a storyline. Often, people’s default assumption is that the passenger in question is arrogant as opposed to ignorant. Psychologists call this the fundamental attribution error, which refers to our tendency to explain other people’s perceived negative behaviour as derived from their personalities rather than the situation." — http://roiword.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/conflict-and-the-quiet-car/

The key point is that a person's perceived view of other people's negative behavior is dependent on the situation i.e. talking loudly on the cell phone in the quiet car.

Thus, situational ethics applies in most situations to eliminate the fundamental attribution error, which often may lead to cognitive distortions.

Attributing other people's perceived negative behaviour to the situation helps to reduce the risk of such cognitive distortions.

'My approach, ever mindful of the fundamental attribution error, is to get up and say, “Excuse me, I am not sure if you know, but this is the quiet car.” By giving people the benefit of ignorance, I find less defensiveness and greater willingness to cooperate.' - ibid.