Glossary / Lexicon

Hostile attribution bias refers to a tendency to assume that provocation is intentional. It is the tendency to perceive ambiguous actions by others as aggressive; tendency to view harm done under ambiguous circumstances as having stemmed from a hostile intent on the part of the harmdoer; characterizes reactive aggressors. Hostile attribution bias, moreover, is the tendency of aggressive children to attribute negative intent to others, especially when the intentions of another child are unclear