Intentionality bias is the tendency to interpret other people's behavior as having been done deliberately and with intent, even when the behavior may actually have been unconscious, accidental or otherwise unintended. The bias tends to persist even after a person is presented with evidence that a given action was not in fact intentional, and it has been linked to problems in social relationships and conflict, since treating an accidental or thoughtless act as a deliberate one can lead to misjudging the other person's character, escalating disagreements, and reinforcing unfavorable stereotypes about them.
Facts
Core ClaimPeople tend to interpret other people's behavior as intentional and deliberate even when it was actually unconscious or accidental, and the tendency persists even after being shown evidence that the act was unintended. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia: Intentionality bias
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Intentionality bias
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph
Intentionality bias, which is known as intention bias for short, is a bias that makes people believe that all human behavior is intentional and that unconscious and/or accidental behavior is less likely behavior.
- History section, Rosset (2008), It's no accident
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
This cognitive bias can happen even if the evidence against the assumption is presented to the person.
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
In what year was intentionality bias first described or named in the psychology literature?
The English Wikipedia article on intentionality bias (the source already cited on this entity) describes the concept in a short lead paragraph with an empty References section and names no year, paper, or author for when the bias was first described or named; a full raw-extract read of the article contains no four-digit year at all.
What would resolve this A citable paper, textbook, or reference work naming the year and author or authors who first described or coined the term intentionality bias.
history of psychologyWikipedia: Intentionality bias
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