Interpretive bias

Interpretive bias or interpretation bias is an information-processing bias, the tendency to inappropriately analyze ambiguous stimuli, scenarios and events.^[1] One type of interpretive bias is hostile attribution bias, wherein individuals perceive benign or ambiguous behaviors as hostile. For example, a situation in which one friend walks past another without acknowledgement. The individual may interpret this behavior to mean that their friend is angry with them.

Psychology

It has been hypothesized that individuals with anxiety are more likely to experience interpretive bias.^[2] One study considered the interpretation of neutral facial expressions in individuals with high and low social anxiety and found that socially anxious participants perceived neutral faces as negative regardless of the context.^[2] In contrast, the study found that non-anxious participants only showed interpretive bias in situations that created anxiety, rather than as a function of their personality.^[2] Psychiatry research has also shown that individuals with vulnerability to paranoia have a tendency to develop interpretive bias.^[3]

Homographs

Another studied considered how anxiety influenced which meaning of homographs was chosen. Homographs are words with at least two meanings.^[1] They found that anxious personalities are more likely to produce threatening interpretations.^[4] Another study found that interpretive bias depends on subsequent controlled processes.^[5]

See also

• Attributional bias
• Mentalization

References

1. Mathews, A. & MacLeod, C. (2005). "Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders". Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. 1: 167–195. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143916. PMID 17716086.
2. Yoon, K.L. & Zinbarg, R.E. (2008). "Interpreting neutral faces as threatening is a default mode for social anxious individuals" (PDF). Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 117 (3): 680–685. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.117.3.680. PMID 18729619. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2016-12-18.
3. Trotta, Antonella; Kang, Jungwoo; Stahl, Daniel; Yiend, Jenny (2021). "Interpretation Bias in Paranoia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis". Clinical Psychological Science. 9: 3–23. doi:10.1177/2167702620951552. S2CID 226328993.
4. Grey, S. J. & Mathews, A.M. (2009). "Cognitive bias modification – Priming with an ambiguous homograph is necessary to detect an interpretation training effect". Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 4 (2): 338–343. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.01.003. PMID 19249014.
5. Calvo, M.G. & Castillo, M.D. (1996). "Predictive inferences occur on-line, but with delay: Convergence of naming and reading times". Discourse Processes. 22 (1): 57–78. doi:10.1080/01638539609544966.