Hostile attribution bias

The term hostile attribution bias first emerged in 1980 when researchers began noticing that some children, particularly aggressive and/or rejected children, tended to interpret social situations differently compared to other children. or small effects Since then, over 100 studies and a meta-analysis have documented a robust association between hostile attribution bias and aggressive behavior across various samples ranging in age, gender, race, countries, and clinical populations. ==Theoretical formulation==

Hostile attribution bias is typically conceptualized within a social information processing framework, in which social information (e.g., during an interaction) is processed in a series of steps that leads to a behavioral reaction. • Accurately encode information in the brain and store it in short-term memory. During this step, an individual will pay attention to and code specific stimuli/cues in their environment, including external factors (e.g., someone bumping into you; other people's reactions to the situation) and internal factors (e.g., your affective reaction to the situation). • Accurately interpret or give meaning to encoded information. During this step, an individual may decide if a behavior or situation was meant to be hostile or benign. • Decide a goal for the interaction • Generate potential responses • Evaluate potential responses and select the "optimal" response • Enact chosen response Hostile attribution bias is theorized to result from deviations in any of these steps, Dodge theorized that hostile attribution bias arises from an individual's hostile schemas about the world that are formed through an interaction between a child's neural dispositions and his/her early exposures to hostile socialization experiences. These experiences may include disrupted parental attachment, child abuse, exposure to family violence, peer rejection or victimization, and community violence. ==Measurement==

In research settings, hostile attribution bias is typically measured with a laboratory task, in which participants are presented with staged interaction (live actors), video, picture, audio, or written presentations of ambiguous social situations. For example, an ambiguous social situation presented might be a video of a child opening a door, causing the door to knock over a tower of toys that another child was building. After the stimulus is presented, participants would be asked to make attributions about the intent of the actor (i.e., hostile vs. benign). (For example: "Do you think the girl who opened the door was trying to be mean, nice, or could have been mean or nice?"). Multiple trials are administered with various ambiguous scenarios, and these attributions are then used by the researchers to determine the level of the child's hostile attribution bias. Careful selection of stimuli and comparison of stimuli across mediums is helpful for accurately assessing an individual's level of hostile attribution bias. A meta-analysis investigating the link between hostile attribution bias and aggressive behavior found that the strongest effect sizes were linked with actual staging of social interactions, followed by audio presentation of stimuli, then video and picture presentation. ==Implications==

Aggression Substantial literature has documented a robust association between hostile attribution bias and aggression in youth. Beyond physical aggression, elevated hostile attribution bias is also associated with increased use of relational aggression (e.g., gossip, spreading rumors, social exclusion). This is particularly the case when youth attribute hostile intent to ambiguous relational situations (e.g., not receiving an invitation to a party or not receiving a response to a text). Negative adult outcomes Hostile attribution bias has also been documented in adult populations, and adults with high levels of hostile attribution bias are over four times more likely to die by the age of 50 than adults with low levels of hostile attribution bias. Hostile attribution bias is particularly linked to relational problems in adulthood, including marital conflict/violence and marital/relationship dissatisfaction. Finally, parents with high levels of hostile attribution bias are also much more likely to use harsh discipline and aggressive parenting, which may further contribute to the intergenerational continuity in hostile attribution bias and aggression across time. Clinical implications for intervention Hostile attribution bias has been tested as a malleable target for intervention for aggressive behaviors in youth, including in cognitive interventions designed to increase accurate identification of others' intentions and attribution of benign intentions. Relative success has been documented from these interventions in changing levels of hostile attribution bias, although actual enduring changes in aggressive behavior have been modest. ==See also==