Discounting the role of causal attributions in the ANOVA model of attribution

For years attribution research has been dominated by the ANOVA model of behavior which proposes that people construct their dispositional attributions of others by carefully comparing and weighing all situational information using mental computations similar to the processes used by researchers to analyze data. A preliminary experiment successfully determined that participants were able to distinguish differences in variability assessed across persons (high vs. low consensus) and across situations (high vs. low distinctiveness). Also, it was clear that the subjects could evaluate varying levels of situational constraint. A primary experiment administered to participants immediately following the preliminary study determined that participants grossly under-utilized those same variables when making dispositional attributions. Results gave evidence against the use of traditional ANOVA models and support for the use of the Behavior Averaging Principle of Attribution.