Naive causal understanding of valenced behaviors and its implications for social information processing

People bring to bear on their understanding of others’ behaviors naive theories of the causes of valenced behaviors. Generally, positive behaviors are understood to be caused by social demands, whereas negative behaviors are understood to be caused by people’s dispositions. Various research findings are reviewed in support of the idea that people possess such naive theories. The analysis is extended to establish how these sense-making tendencies affect the manner in which people approach and process information about others. A second set of studies is reviewed in support of these implications for person perception. Comparisons to other models of social inference are considered, implications of the framework are examined, and the framework is situated within a general model of the attribution process. Overview One of the most fundamental social motives is the need to understand the behavior of others. The ability to effectively understand others, their behavior, and their intentions is basic to human social functioning. Knowing what the behavior of others means is important because it allows people to anticipate what others are likely to do and to smoothly coordinate their actions within the social environment (Asch, 1952; Heider, 1958; Tagiuri, 1958). In this article, I put forth a framework that integrates causal understanding and person perception processes. I posit that the perception of social behaviors is driven by the goal of inferring underlying causes that reside in the person. In attempting to infer such causes and to form representations of others, people use prior knowledge in the form of naive causal theories. These naive theories relate valenced behaviors (positive, negative) to two basic types of causes (dispositional, situational). The valence of others’ behaviors is given careful consideration because valenced behaviors have important consequences for perceivers. Others’ positive behaviors can provide perceivers with benefits, or at the least, not produce any costs for them. However, others’ negative behaviors carry the potential to create costs for the perceiver. Based on people’s socialization experiences, it is understood that positive behavior is encouraged or prescribed by social systems, whereas negative behavior is discouraged and proscribed. Consequently, people’s naive theories indicate that positive behaviors tend to be caused predominantly by situational pressures and social demands, whereas negative behaviors tend to be caused by people’s dispositions. This naive understanding of valenced behaviors has implications for how people process information about others. Being unable to determine the dispositions underlying behavior leads to uncertainty regarding others’ dispositions, whereas being able to arrive at such conclusions engenders certainty in people’s characterization of others. Greater uncertainty leads to more systematic and careful information processing, whereas certainty results in more shallow and less careful information processing. Thus, people’s information processing will tend to be systematic when they process information about others who enact positive behaviors and may thus potentially have positive dispositions, but shallow when they process information about others who enact negative behaviors and may thus potentially have negative dispositions. In the first half of this article, I discuss the basis of people’s naive causal theories of valenced behaviors. I then review research from various domains in social cognition in support of the idea that people possess naive theories of valenced behaviors. Having made the case for the existence of people’s naive theories, in the second half of the article, I integrate this naive understanding of positive and negative behaviors with person perception processes. The latter part of the second half of the article I devote to discussing remaining issues dealing with the limitations and implications of the present framework.