underattribute

Verb

underattribute (third-person singular simple present underattributes, present participle underattributing, simple past and past participle underattributed)

1. (transitive) To underestimate the role of some specified factors in causing (a particular outcome, action, or state of affairs).
   • Our tendency to overattribute behavior to dispositions and underattribute it to circumstances is known as the fundamental attribution error (Ross, 1977).2000, Morton Deutsch, Peter T. Coleman, The Handbook of Conflict Resolution, page 240
   • Because of this, particualr discernment is needed to determine whether the diagnosis is a useful narrative for understanding a person's experience, with care to neither over- nor underattribute symptoms to that diagnosis.2013, SuEllen Hamkins, The Art of Narrative Psychiatry: Stories of Strength and Meaning, page 12

   Antonyms:

   overattribute

2. (transitive) To tend to mistakenly believe that (a certain quality) is not present when, in fact, it is.
   • The hypothesis of interest was stated by Siegel as follows: "Women who have personal difficulty in handling aggressive impulses are more extreme than others in their judgments of hostility in film characters— some underattribute and others overattribute. "1975, Richard B. Darlington, Ronald G. Nathan, Radicals and Squares, and Other Statistical Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences, page 212
   • Tasks that include non-living natural kinds (e.g., clouds and rivers) generally elicit more animalistic errors (e.g., Carey, 1985; Laurendeau & Pinard, 1962; Smeets, 1973; see Nass, 1956, for discussion of content effects); however, even with such items, preschoolers are no more likely to...2008, Usha Goswami, Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, page 160

   Antonyms:

   overattribute

3. (transitive) To misattribute a work of art by asserting that the artist is a less renowned one than it actually is.
   • In the event of a sleeper consignment, the auctioneer is often not fraudulently misrepresenting the property, as he generally has no intention to erroneously underattribute and undersell the lot.2016, Anne Laure Bandle, The Sale of Misattributed Artworks and Antiques at Auction, page 194
   • Claims by sellers of underattributed artworks2022, Martin Wilson, Art Law and the Business of Art, page 367

   Antonyms:

   overattribute