False attributions suck no matter what. I feel like you can never be civil with someone who makes a false attribution about you. I try to stay calm and not get mad but oh it’s hard to do sometimes. But, the feelings you have are even worse when you make a false attribution about somebody else. You get that panic and your heart starts beating faster when you see that person. In high school I heard something about a friend of mine and I just blurted it out to her one day and she flipped because she thought I said it, then I flipped back on her saying I heard that from so and so. She was super mad at first because she thought it was me but then the person who said it was like no I said it. So, it ended with her not being upset with me. We laughed about it.
You bring up the important angle about how we distinguish between false attributions being made against us and the (sometimes faulty) attributions we make about others. Given how much it sucks when people form an incomplete or inaccurate opinion of you, you’d think we’d be more careful about how we go forming opinions on others. It’s easy to fall into the trap of false attribution when you make a snap decision based upon little information. First impression count, yes, but it can take quite awhile longer to form a full picture of that individual.
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