ATTRIBUTION IN CONVERSATIONAL CONTEXT - EFFECT OF MUTUAL KNOWLEDGE ONEXPLANATION-GIVING

Attribution theorists typically have conceived the attribution process in terms of universal laws of cognitive functioning, independent of s ocial interaction. In this paper we argue for the notion, grounded in recent ordinary language philosophy, that any consideration of the for m of everyday explanation must take into account its function as an an swer to a 'why' question within a conversational framework. Experiment 1 provides support for the idea that speakers should identify as caus ally relevant that necessary condition for the occurrence of an event about which the enquirer is ignorant. Experiment 2 replicates this bas ic finding and further demonstrates that speakers will change their ex planations to enquirers believed to be sharing different knowledge abo ut the same target event. Experiment 2 also assessed the role of indiv idual differences in conversational rule-following, and found in appar ent contrast some previous predictions that high self-monitoring indiv iduals were no more likely than lows to tailor their explanations to s uit the enquirer's knowledge state. If anything, the reverse occurred. Taken together, these experiments support the central contention of t he abnormal conditions focus model (Hilton and Slugoski, 1986), that t he common sense criterion of causality is that of an 'abnormal conditi on' rather than constant conjunction as instantiated in the ANOVA mode l of causal attribution (Kelley, 1967, 1973).