Effects of Affect, Stereotype Consistency, and Valence of Behavior on Causal Attributions

The authors examined 3 hypotheses about the effects of 2 positive and 2 negative affects on causal attributions. On the basis of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, they predicted that the grateful and angry participants would attribute causality for like-valenced behaviors to the target more s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social psychology 2001-02, Vol.141 (1), p.31-48
Main Authors: Jackson, Linda A., Lewandowski, Donna A., Fleury, Ruth E., Chin, Peggy P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect
African Americans - psychology
Anger
Attribution
Attribution Theory
Behavior
Behavior Theories
Behaviour
Biological and medical sciences
Causal attributions
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Happiness
Humans
Hypotheses
Internal-External Control
Logical Thinking
Male
Modeling (Psychology)
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social Perception
Social psychology
stereotype consistency
Stereotyped Behavior
Stereotypes
Theory
Undergraduate Students
United States of America
valence of behavior
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Summary:The authors examined 3 hypotheses about the effects of 2 positive and 2 negative affects on causal attributions. On the basis of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, they predicted that the grateful and angry participants would attribute causality for like-valenced behaviors to the target more strongly than would the happy and sad participants, respectively. Following an affect-induction procedure, 229 Anglo-American participants read a description of an African American target whose behavior was stereotype consistent or stereotype inconsistent and positive or negative in valence. As predicted, when the behavior was negative, the angry participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the sad participants. When the behavior was positive, the grateful participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the happy participants. The importance of distinguishing among affects and considering their multidimensional nature in predicting effects on social judgments is emphasized.
ISSN:0022-4545
1940-1183
DOI:10.1080/00224540109600521