K. Floyd et M. Voloudakis, Attributions for expectancy violating changes in affectionate behavior in platonic friendships, J PSYCHOL, 133(1), 1999, pp. 32-48
Although affectionate communication is vital for the maintenance of close,
personal relationships, it has the potential to generate negative as well a
s positive outcomes, which may in part be a function of what attributions a
re made for affectionate expressions. The present experiment applied princi
ples of attribution theory to unexpected changes in affectionate communicat
ion within dyads of adult platonic friends. Results indicated that attribut
ions are more often made for decreases in affection than for increases. Con
trary to the prediction of the fundamental attribution error, all the parti
cipants more often made external, noncontrollable attributions for changes
in affectionate behavior, and the intimacy level of the friendship moderate
d this effect. Finally, the types of attributions made were associated with
a recipient's evaluations of the giver's affectionate behavior and his or
her assessment of the giver's character.