Attribution

This is an influence of assigning motive to action. The cigarette smoking man's action was standing with his daughter waiting for someone. He smoked while doing so. No one knows the motive, perhaps he was just enjoying a cigarette. Chris assigned the motive of "bad" to his action. I assigned the motive of "bad" to Chris' over-consumption of cookies. 

Keeping these influences in check means developing a psychological noise that recognizes the process and deals with the influences, making the evaluation more valid. Keeping our own judgements at bay is imperative when assessing what may be a threat. The temporal context permitting, the more information we gather without preconception or prejudice, the more apt we are in finding meaning in non-verbal manifestations that speak contrary to existing contexts. Remember, the idea here is to recognize and engage threatening behavior before it may escalate to violence.