2007/01/01 by Bertram F. Malle, Joshua Knobe, Sarah E. Nelson · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Attribution #Situational ethics #Psychology #Observer (physics) #Social psychology #Cognitive psychology #Epistemology #Folk psychology #Cognitive science
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.491
openalex publication_date 2007/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Traditional attribution theory conceptualizes explanations of behavior as referring to either dispositional or situational causes. An alternative approach, the folk-conceptual theory of behavior explanation, distinguishes multiple discrete modes of explanation and specific features within each mode. Because attribution theory and the folk-conceptual theory carve up behavior explanations in distinct ways, they offer very different predictions about actor-observer asymmetries. Six studies, varying in contexts and methodologies, pit the 2 sets of predictions against each other. There was no evidence for the traditional actor-observer hypothesis, but systematic support was found for the actor-observer asymmetries hypothesized by the folk-conceptual theory. The studies also provide initial evidence for the processes that drive each of the asymmetries: impression management goals, general knowledge, and copresence.