Retrospective revaluation effects during interpersonal attributions

Abstract

Three questionnaire studies examined retrospective revaluation during judgments of causal attribution in social situations, that is, judgments about whether a particular individual or environmental cause was responsible for an outcome. An initial phase of training occurred in which two individuals (or one person and an environmental event) were described as possible candidates as causes of an outcome. One cause was the target test cause, and the other cause was manipulated in Phase 2. In Phase 2, new information about the validity of the “nontarget” cause was presented. This “nontarget” cause was either elevated in its causal status (an “inflation” treatment) or decreased in status as a possible cause (a “deflation” treatment). Participants rated the extent that the target cause was the cause of the outcome before and after receiving the inflation or deflation information in Phase 2. The difference in those scores was calculated to examine the potential of the Phase 2 information to influence attributions regarding the target cause (retrospective revaluation). Retrospective revaluation effects were found, specifically in deflation conditions, such that this new Phase 2 information did influence judgments about causal status of the target cause (Study 1); but inflation effects were weak. Deflation occurred when the cause was environmental and when it involved two people as causes. Also, the importance of the strength of the association between two causes (“within-compound associations”) was evaluated in two subsequent studies, revealing that this factor is important for observing retrospective revaluation, particularly when the strength of the association is either weak or strong but not of medium strength.