Dan planned a party and invited his whole English class by passing out personal invitations. Dan accidentally forgot to make an invitation for Sam. Sam assumed he intentionally wasn't invited and became irate at Dan for excluding him. This is an example of:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Sam's assumption that he was intentionally left out demonstrates a hostile attributional bias, which is the tendency to interpret other people's behavior as intentionally hostile or aggressive even when there is no evidence to support this interpretation. This bias can lead to feelings of anger and aggression, which is what happened in this scenario. While relational aggression, aggressive-withdrawal, and bullying also involve negative social behaviors, they do not fully capture the cognitive aspect of Sam's reaction.

Dan Planned a Party and Invited His Whole English Class