High fit

Reattribution is the central mechanism in this story. Bob Byrd had collapsed full responsibility for breaking the bond between his mother and her grandfather onto the act of breaking the statue — equating the physical object with the love it represented. His mother drew a clear line between the two: the statue breaking did not mean the love was broken, and Bob breaking the statue did not mean he had broken his mother or their relationship. That redistribution of meaning shifted Bob's attribution from 'I destroyed everything' to 'I broke an object, not a bond.'