True. But often the target can’t do that test, e.g. because it’s costly or because they don’t actually know what to look for. Also, the “threshold” is sometimes not about the target, but about a third party, e.g. a another person who’s supposed to judge whether the attacked is really being attacked. Verbal abuse is an example of both: the abused often doesn’t have concepts to describe what’s happening, and so doesn’t know what to look for and doesn’t know what to say to a judge; and because the abuse comes along with pain and distraction, it’s costly to track the sum; and there’s noise and ambiguity, so the judge doesn’t credit any one instance; and the judge may not accept a description of the sum, but only accepts an accounting of each instance, which imposes sum-sized costs on reporting a sum-sized attack.
True. But often the target can’t do that test, e.g. because it’s costly or because they don’t actually know what to look for. Also, the “threshold” is sometimes not about the target, but about a third party, e.g. a another person who’s supposed to judge whether the attacked is really being attacked. Verbal abuse is an example of both: the abused often doesn’t have concepts to describe what’s happening, and so doesn’t know what to look for and doesn’t know what to say to a judge; and because the abuse comes along with pain and distraction, it’s costly to track the sum; and there’s noise and ambiguity, so the judge doesn’t credit any one instance; and the judge may not accept a description of the sum, but only accepts an accounting of each instance, which imposes sum-sized costs on reporting a sum-sized attack.