Hostile attribution bias among offenders and non‐offenders: Making social information processing more adequate

Abstract

AbstractExploring the relationships between variables that predict hostile attributions is essential for understanding aggressive behaviours and for enabling the development of suitable aggression‐reduction interventions. The aim of this series of two studies was to investigate how ascribing intentionality and blame to other people are critical in predicting hostile attribution. In Study 1 (general sample: N = 163, 63.8% females; inmates: N = 109 people, 78.9% females), we hypothesized that people that are sensitive to provocation declare higher levels of anger and that this is serially mediated by perceived intentionality of the act and perceived blame of the harm‐doer. The results confirmed these assumptions. In Study 2, the participants took part in a 3‐month psycho‐educational training that included mentalization elements. We hypothesized that the level of hostile attributions among inmates (N = 8, females) would be lower after the training. Changes in the inmates' attributions were observed after a qualitative analysis of the results. This finding achieved the study's aim of demonstrating how such theoretical assumptions can be practically implemented.