Hostile Attributional Bias, Early Abuse, and Social Desirability in Reporting Hostile Attributions Among Chinese Immigrant Batterers and Nonviolent Men

Abstract

This study examined differences in reporting hostile attributional bias (HAB) between court-referred Chinese immigrant batterers and a nonviolent community sample. It measured social desirability (SD) in their reporting of HAB by including an SD measure and a covert indirect measure of HAB. Further, it explored the relationship between HAB and childhood exposure to violence. The batterers scored lower on the overt measure but higher on the covert measure of HAB. Their scores on the overt measure were negatively correlated with their SD scores. Childhood exposure to violence was positively correlated with HAB among the batterers but not among the nonviolent men. The role of HAB in intimate partner violence needs more research, and future studies and batterer interventions need to consider SD in assessing and addressing HAB.