A great book that addresses that in a non-political way is Difficult Conversations by by Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton.
Well worth reading.
When people assume certain intentions based on how another's behavior affects or impacts them personally, their emotions can easily take over and cause them to assign attributes that simply aren't there. Then, it affects their own behavior toward that person, which sets off a snowball effect and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You see this happening on political memes a lot.