Hostile attribution bias
- A hostile attribution bias (HAB) could be defined as a tendency to interpret neutral (or possibly even friendly) behaviour from others as threatening, menacing or dangerous
- Someone with a HAB is always on the lookout for confrontation and perceived threat from others which in turn leads to them behaving in confrontational, threatening ways themselves
- Someone with a HAB may ‘read’ an accidental bump (e.g. in a pub while waiting at the bar to be served or walking down the street) as an invitation to an argument or fight (often including physical aggression)
- Usually with HAB the supposed ‘provocation’ is nothing more than a misconstrued glance from another person (e.g. Are you looking at me?) or an ambiguous act (e.g. Why did you call me ‘mate’? I’m not your mate!)
Exam Tip
Although Hollywood movies aren’t on the AQA specification (sadly) it can, at times, be useful to watch some examples of theory in action. If you have a strong stomach for violence (and if you don’t then please ignore this entire exam tip!) you might want to watch ‘Goodfellas’ (a Martin Scorcese film) which focuses on a group of mafia types through the years. The character of Tommy (played with frightening believability by Joe Pesci) embodies the whole idea of hostile attribution bias (and, to be fair, he’s not the only one in the film who has a HAB - though he is undoubtedly the most unpredictable and alarming of the lot!)
‘You want a piece of me?’ - the HAB in full swing…