There is a cognitive bias I learned about in my sociology class that is especially relevant today with the popularity of the “Sacked by an Algorithm” post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2049105). It’s colloquially called “blaming the victim” and it’s the tendency we have, when seeing someone who got in a car accident, is being beaten by a policeman, is a abused by a spouse, etc., to think that they probably deserved or earned it.
When considering someone in a different position than us, we tend to imagine it’s because they are different more than we should; it’s more likely that we would behave similarly in a similar situation (than we would tend to believe).
Related reading:
DDG search for "Fundamental Attribution Error" http://duckduckgo.com/?q=fundamental+attribution+error
"Victim blaming" on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_blaming
"Cognitive bias" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
"Psychology of Victimhood" http://www.zurinstitute.com/victimhood.html