defensive attribution
- noun
- /dɪˈfɛnsɪv əˈtrɪbjuːʃən/
- Specialized
:
atribución defensiva
- After hearing about the accident, his immediate defensive attribution was to assume the victim was at fault.
Examples
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Research on defensive attribution has shown that people may blame others to protect their own sense of safety.
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Psychologists study defensive attribution to understand why people sometimes lack empathy for those who suffer misfortune.
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Many people engage in defensive attribution when hearing about accidents.
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The concept of defensive attribution helps explain why we blame victims.
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After learning about the robbery, her defensive attribution led her to believe the victim must have done something wrong.
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Studying defensive attribution can reveal how certain attitudes contribute to victim-blaming behaviors.
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In a discussion on societal responses to crime, he mentioned defensive attribution as a reason people avoid connecting with victims.
How Externalized
- Specialized
29
8.2
- Specialized
- Specialized
4
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally transparent in that 'defensive' modifies 'attribution', so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to making attributions for defensive reasons (i.e., attributing causes in a way that protects oneself). However, the specific psychological nuance—blaming victims to reduce perceived vulnerability—is a specialized interpretation that may not be fully predictable from the parts alone, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Defensive attribution comes from a simple image: to be defensive is to protect yourself and attribution is giving blame. So people 'give blame' to a victim after something bad happens to feel safer themselves, which is why the term means 'blaming victims to feel safer'.