ABSTRACT
Causal explanation is central to our understanding of the world we live in. We seek to know not only what happens and when and where it happens, but how and why an event happened the way it did. The study of causal attribution processes has thus become a major topic of study for social psychologists interested in how people understand their own and others’ behavior (Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967). Research in this area, known as attribution theory, has been prolific (see Harvey & Weary, 1984; Kelley & Michela, 1980; Ross & Fletcher, 1985 for relevant reviews).
