cognitive distortions are errors in thinking, when people's thoughts do not accurately represent reality
what is Hostile Attribution Bias (HAB)?
when you view someone's behavior as having a hostile intent, when it doesn't
those with HAB often misperceive the intent of another's behavior as having an aggressive or harmful motive
someone with HAB is more likely to respond to a situation aggressively. if they see someone's behavior as hostile, they're more likely to respond with hostile behaviour
SCHONEBERG and JUSTYE showed emotionally ambiguous faces to 55violent offenders and compared their responses to a matched non-aggressive control group.
The faces showed angry, happy or fearful emotions in levels of intensity
offenders were more likely to interpret any picture that has some expression of anger as an expression of aggression
supporting the view that violent offenders may have HAB
HOLTSWORTH-MUNROE and HUTCHINSON found a link between HAB and domestic violence
They gave men examples of difficult marital situations and asked them to rate the woman's behaviour in each case
Men who had been violent towards their wives were more likely to think that woman was being negative towards the husband and that their intentions were hostile
