Research Hit: How Your Brain Sees the Bad in Others

Measuring the brain to the bias of seeing malicious intentions in others.

You normally write about more positive things - do we really see the bad in others?

Well, I write about a lot, but normally put a positive spin on this. This also has a positive spin because it shows we can identify this hostile attribution bias and that it is indeed purely a bias.

What type of bias!?

Hostile attribution bias: this is when we see or assume bad intentions of others i.e. we attribute a person’s statements or actions as being hostile to us vs. being neutral, ambiguous, or even positive.

Ok and how was this researched?

Participants listened to 21 scenarios which resulted in a negative outcome for the listener. While this was happening they had their brains scanned using a technique called functional near‐infrared spectroscopy. Participants were then asked to rate the hostile intentions of the people they had heard.

Ok, and what did the researchers find?