Attribution of Intention and Perception of Attitude as a Function of Liking and Similarity

Abstract

Liking and similarity were varied factorially to test competing predictions from Jones and Davis' attribution theory and Heider's balance theory. Each subject was informed he was either similar or dissimilar to a confederate described as a student who either liked or disliked him. None of the attribution theory predictions were confirmed. Subjects distorted the similarity relationship in the manner predicted by balance theory. Additional findings which provide support for balance theory were discussed. Heider's description of naive psychology (1958) notes that people attempt to assign meaning to other people's actions and that this meaning is inferred by the assignment of intentions to the actor. Heider feels that if a person (p) becomes aware of an act of another person (o), p will try to determine the meaning of o's action. This search for meaning typically will take the form of a search for reasons or enough for o to have performed the action. This reason (or reasons) is considered to be the intention of the action from which the meaning is derived. Building on Heider's basic hypotheses, Jones and Davis (1965) have constructed a theory for the attribution of intention of a person's actions. They are concerned with correspondent inferences, an inference being correspondent to the extent that it sufficiently explains the behavior in question. Correspondence should be high