I’ve loved Taylor Swift’s music for a long time now—definitely at least since early middle school, when her 2008 hit “Love Story” became my second-ever iTunes song purchase1. As much today as in fifth grade, I listen and re-listen to her songs because the lyrics tell a story, often in an incredibly vivid and vulnerable way. Taylor’s magical storytelling ability is exemplified in one of her earlier hits, the song “Enchanted” from her 2010 Speak Now album, but it exists across the full spectrum of her discography, from the original country songs to her newer pop music.
Taylor Swift has been in the news a lot lately. In August, she released her seventh album, Lover. Last Sunday, she received the Artist of the Decade award at the 2019 American Music Awards. In the interim, she’s also been part of a heated controversy with Scooter Braun, the new manager of her former record label Big Machine Records. This photo comes from Elle Magazine.
People claim that there’s a Taylor Swift song for just about any occasion, and I think it’s true. In fact, I think that’s one of the many reasons why Taylor Swift is among my all-time favorite artists. Whether I’m happy or sad, heartbroken or crushing hard, about to go to bed or on my way to a 9:00 A.M. class, I can count on Taylor’s music to get me through any mood, like a good friend who always knows just what to say.
It’s because I appreciate Taylor Swift’s music so much, however, that lately I’ve started grappling a lot more with one element of her music that I don’t like as much: her tendency to commit the Fundamental Attribution Error.
Also known as Correspondence Bias or Actor-Observer Bias, the Fundamental Attribution Error is a social psychology phenomenon. Research has found that when we do something wrong, we tend to blame our failures on external causes, such as uncontrollable environmental factors or the actions of those around us. In contrast, when someone else makes a mistake, we’re more likely to attribute their shortcoming to internal factors, such as a flaw in their personality or work ethic. In other words, the theory of the Fundamental Attribution Error says that we tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt when we mess up, but we don’t usually do the same for other people when they mess up.
The Fundamental Attribution Error comes up most often in Taylor Swift’s break-up songs, in which she tends to portray herself as the victim of her romantic partner’s inherent inability to love. Rarely, if ever, in these songs does Taylor reflect on what she herself may have done wrong to exacerbate the strained relationship. Almost never does she truly consider the situational factors that may have led her partner to behave the way he did.
I think the clearest example comes from Taylor’s 2006 heartbreak hit “Cold As You,” which is about an emotionally distant romantic partner. Addressing him directly, she cries, “And you come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you.” In this line, Taylor effectively expunges herself of any responsibility for the relationship’s downfall. By pairing the strong, accusatory phrase “the nerve to [do something]” with an action that deserves praise rather than accusation, Taylor inverts the blame for the relationship’s downfall from herself onto her ex.
This deflection of responsibility is visible throughout the song. In another verse, Taylor explains, “I start a fight ‘cause I need to feel something / And you do what you want ‘cause I’m not what you wanted.” Here, Taylor is more open to admitting that she truly has done hurtful things, including starting fights. However, she is quick to argue that she only did so because her boyfriend provoked her: if he were less emotionally distant, she would “feel something,” and thus wouldn’t have to “start a fight.” True to the paradigm of the Fundamental Attribution Error, Taylor writes off her own mistakes as the consequence of an external factor, her boyfriend’s aloofness. Meanwhile, she assumes that her boyfriend never had a valid reason for behaving the way he did. Taylor cites only frivolous explanations for his actions, such as ambivalence and the desire for a “great little story.” The listener is ultimately left to assume that, because Taylor can’t list a single valid external factor that may have caused her boyfriend to be so emotionally distant in the first place, he must just be an inherently bad person.
“Cold As You” is not the only song in which Taylor plays this type of blame game. Her 2010 ballad “Dear John,” written about her relationship with fellow musician John Mayer, features the lyric “Well maybe it’s me and my blind optimism to blame / Or maybe it’s you and your sick need to give love and take it away.” As in the “Cold As You” lyrics, Taylor gives the initial impression of being reflective about her shortcomings, but never actually takes responsibility for anything concrete and legitimate that she could have done wrong. In contrast, from the phrase “sick need,” she promotes the idea that Mayer acted out of an intrinsic heartlessness; just as humans need water and food to survive, the line suggests that Mayer needs to hurt the women he dates to be who he is.
And the list of lyrics that play into the Fundamental Attribution Error goes on:
- “Did I say something way too honest? / Made you run and hide, like a scared little boy” (“Forever & Always”). Taylor’s only mistake is actually a virtue (honesty), while her ex-lover’s behavior is due to his being a weak and childish person.
- “I knew you were trouble when you walked in / So shame on me now” (“I Knew You Were Trouble”). Taylor claims that the only thing at all that she did wrong was not trust her gut feeling about a boy. The boy does not just cause trouble; he is trouble. It’s an internal part of him, and it’s to blame for the relationship’s rocky ending.
- The title of the song “Look What You Made Me Do” removes Taylor’s agency from her negative actions. Anything bad she did, the line argues, was caused exclusively by the other person’s behavior, not by any character flaw of her own.
As a listener, I struggle a lot with how to understand these lyrics. When I try to relate some of these songs to my own personal experiences, I feel guilty and self-indulgent because I know that no interpersonal conflict of mine has ever been so black and white that I could claim it was entirely the other person’s fault. Then, I start to wonder whether Taylor is oversimplifying her own relationships for the sake of a more poignant appeal to pathos. To be clear, I wholeheartedly believe Taylor when she says that these former partners hurt her. But I also think there’s a part of the story she fails to tell us in these lyrics. Are her own mistakes really always so negligible? Can she really ignore the underlying stress, past trauma, or other external factors that may have caused her boyfriends to act how they did?2 In a way, Taylor’s songs can sometimes feel like an essay that left off the counterargument.
I don’t want Taylor to forgive these men, nor do I want her to blame herself. I just think that there’s a way to write a song about someone who hurt you that has more nuance to it. Consider, for instance, the following song lyrics from other pop artists who sing about heartbreak:
- “I’ve played all my cards / And that’s what you’ve done too” (“The Winner Takes It All” by ABBA)
- “Let’s talk it over / It’s not like we’re dead / Was it something I did? / Was it something you said?” (“My Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne)
- “We’d always go into it blindly” (“Lose You To Love Me” by Selena Gomez)
None of these singers holds back from letting their former lover know just how much he hurt them. Yet, each song also features these couple of lines that build in complexity to the situation. Avril Lavigne uses parallel structure to create a sense of balance between her mistakes and those of her ex. Selena Gomez uses the pronoun “we” to emphasize dual responsibility for some shortcomings. ABBA gives credit to both sides for the effort they put into the relationship.
But then again, maybe Taylor’s music doesn’t need nuance. Maybe the beauty of her songs is that her anger is not completely rational, and thus depicts a real human tendency toward making the Fundamental Attribution Error. Maybe Taylor wants us to question the completeness of her story—and in doing so, maybe she even encourages us to consider just how complete the stories we tell ourselves are.
Whatever it is, I think it’s important to note that Taylor Swift doesn’t always make the Fundamental Attribution Error. In fact, I think she moves away from it quite a bit in her most recent album, Lover. The song “Afterglow,” for instance, is actually an apology to a former partner and is her second apology song in seven albums3. The song “Cruel Summer” is notable because she puts the blame for a toxic relationship not entirely on herself or her ex, but on the setting: “it’s a cruel summer,” she sings, rather than a cruel boy. Then, of course, there’s her track five song “The Archer,” in which Taylor admits, “I’ve been the archer / I’ve been the prey,” or in other words, she has both hurt others and been hurt in her past relationships.
I think it’s fair to say that, regardless of what mistakes she’s made in her past relationships or what psychological errors she commits, Taylor is in fact always evolving. And that, I have to admit, is yet another reason why I love her music so much.
– – – –
[1] The first song I ever downloaded from iTunes was Katy Perry’s “Hot ‘N Cold.”
[2] It’s worth pointing out that, in the case of “Dear John,” John Mayer has spoken out about how he feels Taylor misrepresented their relationship. His interview with Rolling Stone Magazine on the topic can be found here.
[3] Taylor Swift’s only other apology song is “Back To December,” from her 2010 album Speak Now.
On Ariel's Mind 