In our social interactions we tend to make explanations and interpretations about the events and other people behaviors.

Normally, people are different in their way of interpretations. These differences are called attributional style.

Imagine that you have plans with a friend to get out together, and when time gets near you called him, but he didn’t respond. And didn’t call back either.

 You might get bitter and think of this incident as a disrespect. Of course there are a lot of possibilities, but you may not see any but one.

What you accept the most is your attributional style.

Perhaps your friend was held up by an emergency, a work obligation, a sick child or an unexpected visit by some relative. He might have had a hectic week and had forgotten to set up a reminder. Or you may have called a wrong number.

Exploring all the possible explanations instead of dwelling on one is called giving the benefit of the doubt.

Research has shown that people who tend to blame others and make explanations towards attributing malicious intentions to others are less satisfied with their relationships and less happy than those who tend to give people the benefit of the doubt.

That means, taking care of our little assumptions about people could serve as a mechanism to improve our happiness.

Instead of letting our attributional style as an automatic reaction which we cannot control, we can work on to improve our general well-being.

According to research, attributional style can be classified as a hostile style when we assign malicious intent to other people’s intentions, a benign attributional style, when we give others the benefit of doubt, and an ambiguous style, when we assign malicious intent to others’ actions but not always.

 Attributional style can be worked on to make it benign. By being mindful to our interpretations and refraining from jumping to conclusions and learning to explore all possibilities along with disputing out automatic patterns, a more benign style can be learned.

Another effective strategy is to cultivate a direct and open communication. Instead of letting your anxiety or anger prevail, or allowing your built-in style to make the judgement, you can simply ask people about their confusing behavior.

Before you jump to conclusions, give others the benefit of doubt and allow them to tell their side of things.

It is not about them in the end, it is about your happiness and well-being. Assuming others have good intentions will make the world look friendlier and safer