Hedonistic Relevance

Hedonistic relevance (also known as hedonic relevance) is an attributional bias in which a person perceives another individual's behaviors or actions as intended to directly influence them. It can be a positive or negative perception. Hedonistic relevance occurs when a person attributes another's behavior as being a result of their disposition instead of situational factors. A person thinks another person's attributes are responsible for behaviors that affect them negatively instead of the situation or environment.

An example could be seen in a party scenario. Frank is at the party and a person spills a drink on him. Hedonistic relevance occurs and Frank thinks that the person deliberately spilled the drink on him out of malice and the person is very rude. If hedonistic relevance has not occurred Frank would have noticed the situational factors that caused the spill- the floor was slippery and the party was very crowded.