Promotion and prevention focus on alternative hypotheses: implications forattributional functions

Five studies examined hypothesis generation and discounting in causal attri bution from the perspective of regulatory focus theory (E. T. Higgins, 1997 , 1998). According to this theory, a promotion focus is associated with gen erating more and simultaneously endorsing multiple hypotheses, whereas a pr evention focus is associated with generating only a few hypotheses and sele cting 1 hypothesis from a given set. Five studies confirmed these predictio ns for both situationally induced and chronic individual differences in reg ulatory focus. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, individuals in a promotion focus gen erated more hypotheses than individuals in a prevention focus. In Studies 4 and 5, individuals in a promotion focus discounted explanations in light o f alternatives less than individuals in a prevention focus. Study 5 also fo und that in a promotion focus, person explanations were generalized across situations less than in a prevention focus.