A model of the development of hostile attributional style and its role in children's aggressive behavior is proposed, based on the translation of basic science in ethology, neuroscience, social psychology, personality psychology, and developmental psychology. Theory and findings from these domains are reviewed and synthesized in the proposed model, which posits that (a) aggressive behavior and hostile attributions are universal human characteristics, (b) socialization leads to the development of benign attributions, (c) individual differences in attributional style account for differences in aggressive behavior, and (d) interventions to change attributions have the potential to alter antisocial development. Challenges for future research are described.The problem of antisocial crime has been estimated to cost American society over one trillion dollars per year (Anderson, 1999). Chronically antisocial individuals cost society between 1.6 and 2.2 million dollars each over the life span (Cohen, 1998). As youth, they are called seriously emotionally disturbed in the education system, juvenile delinquents in the justice system, and conduct disordered in the mental health system. About 7% of males qualify as conduct disordered in psychiatric nosology (Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006). Their antisocial behavior is regarded as highly stable across long periods of life, and they are notoriously difficult to treat effectively. In the search for solutions regarding an understanding of etiology of chronic antisocial behavior and novel methods for intervention and prevention, the practice field has turned to the basic sciences, including ethology, neuroscience, social psychology, personality, and developmental psychology. The translation of these sciences to the treatment of these children is captured in the tenets of developmental psychopathology.This article concerns one concept that has grown out of translational science: hostile attributional bias. Consider the hypothetical 12-year-old boy walking down the middle-school hallway. A peer runs down the hallway, knocking him over and spilling his books on the floor. Peers laugh. How does the boy respond? Does he interpret the incident as disrespect and a threat to his reputation for strength and toughness and respond aggressively, or does he interpret the act benignly and walk away? Every child has this kind of experience, and the child's attribution and response are crucial to his or her well-being, self-respect, and reputation for strength. As Nisbett and Cohen (1996, p. xv) noted, "In many of the world's cultures, social status, economic well-being, and life itself are linked to such a reputation." A central thesis of this article is that individual differences in aggressive behavior occur as a function of characteristic styles of attributing hostile intent (or not) to others' provocative behavior.Over the past 25 years, over 100 studies have identified reliable correlations between the attribution that a peer provocateur has acted with hostile intent and a behavioral...