Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Peer group similarities in adolescent hostile attribution tendencies.

A bias toward attributing hostile intent to others has been linked to aggression. In an adolescent sample, the question of whether peer group homophily exists in the tendency toward attributing hostile intent was investigated. Hostile attribution tendencies and self-reported aggressive behaviors were assessed in a normative sample of 910 adolescents and average peer group scores were computed on the basis of nominated friend scores. Results indicated that adolescents showed significant correlations between their own level of hostile attributions and that of their peer group. Further analyses indicated that this effect occurred specifically in reciprocal friendships and was retained even when own and peer group levels of aggression were controlled.