impute

The quotation comes from The Serial Killer Test: Biases Against Atheists Emerge in Study

Quotation: The urge to impute beliefs, motives and mental states to mass murderers, moreover, is often misplaced, experts said. Some mass killers clearly commit atrocities because of their professed religious beliefs, like terrorists. But modern history’s register of assorted serial killers, spree shooters and other mortal predators is a rogue’s gallery of mostly male, aggrieved actors who are sometimes believers, sometimes not, and who half the time do not qualify for any specific psychiatric diagnosis, as disturbed as they are, according to an analysis of more than 200 such killers by Dr. Michael Stone, a New York forensic psychiatrist.
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Hi everyone! I have a question about “impute”.

I think it’s designed to mean:
=> The urge to hold beliefs… accountable for mass murderers…

But the word impresses me that:
=> the urge to hold mass murderers accountable for beliefs, motives and mental states…

To impute means to ascribe or assign.

To reword the sentence: The urge (that many have) to say that mass murderers have certain beliefs, motives and mental states (that cause them to commit mass murders) is often misplaced, according to experts.

Hi Irelia,

impute
1. to believe that someone has (a quality, etc.):
The children imputed magical powers to the old woman.(WR)

So it means "the urge to say/believe/think that mass murderers have certain beliefs ....."

👁 Big Grin :D
Got it. Thanks!