Attribution is primarily the process of ascribing a cause to an event or explaining the event.
This approach considers behavior explanations an integral part of people's theory of mind , which views people as intentional agents who act in light of their beliefs and desires. One advantage of this approach lies in its compatibility with work on responsibility attribution , which also takes into account the intentionality of the behavior in question. Another recent development suggests that attributions are not just cognitive processes but rather communicative acts. Thus, behavior explanations are altered for impression-management purposes, are responsive to an interlocutor's interest and concerns, and have an immediate impact on others' perceptions and evaluations of the explainer and the agent whose behavior is being explained.