WHICH BEHAVIORS DO PEOPLE EXPLAIN - A BASIC ACTOR-OBSERVER ASYMMETRY

Attribution research has focused on how people explain behavior; the p resent paper examines which behaviors they explain. The authors introd uce a framework that specifies when people wonder about and explain an event. Applied to behavior, the framework predicts which behavioral e vents (intentional vs. unintentional and observable vs. unobservable) actors and observers tend to explain: (a) Actors wonder more often abo ut unintentional and unobservable behaviors, whereas observers wonder more often about intentional and observable behaviors. (b) In private explanations (directed to oneself), actors explain more unintentional and unobservable behaviors, whereas observers explain more intentional and observable behaviors. (c) In communicative explanations (directed to others), both actors and observers explain more intentional and ob servable behaviors. These hypotheses are supported in 5 studies using thought protocols, memory protocols, diaries, conversations, and novel s.