Verbal framing and statistical patterns influence children’s attributions to situational, but not personal, causes for behavior

Abstract

Adults from Western cultures attribute others’ behavior to personal causes more readily than situational causes; however, little research has explored the developmental origins of this attributional bias. Research has shown that children can use both the statistical patterns present in observed behavior, as well as the verbal framing of the behaviors, to infer personal causes. However, research has not explored whether children also use these factors to infer situational causes. The present study examined the impacts of statistical patterns and verbal framing on four- and six-year-old children’s (n = 218) attributions to personal and situational causes for behavior, as assessed by their explanations for characters’ interactions with toys. In a factorial design the statistical pattern of characters’ behaviors suggested either a personal or situational cause (or neither), and the experimenter’s verbal framing of the behaviors suggested either a personal or situational cause (or neither). Across age groups, children showed a bias toward providing personal explanations. Both statistical pattern and verbal framing influenced causal attributions, but both impacts were asymmetric such that situational cues increased situational explanations relative to neutral cues, but there was no difference in children’s explanations following personal and neutral cues. These results suggest that verbal framing and statistical patterns impact children’s developing social causal attributions, specifically with respect to situational causes, and also that a personal attribution bias emerges early in development.