Predicting the causal agent in verbally described social interactions

Højvig, Mette; Tumasjan, Andranik and Spörrle, Matthias (2008): Predicting the causal agent in verbally described social interactions. International Congress of Psychology, Berlin, Germany, 20. - 25. July 2008. International Journal of Psychology. Vol. 43, No. 3/4 p. 632

Abstract

Implicit causality in interpersonal verbs (i.e., causal assumptions about the initiator of a social interaction) has been extensively investigated, especially in English and German language (cf. Rudolph & Försterling, 1997). The present study is the first to investigate verb causality in Danish language using a student sample (N = 96) while simultaneously examining consensus (i.e., to what extent others besides the grammatical subject treat the object like this) and distinctiveness (i.e., to what extent solely the object person is treated by the subject like this) as predictors of causal attribution to subject or object. A strong verb causality effect in Danish language emerged. Consensus proved to be a better predictor than distinctiveness for causal attribution.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
• Keywords: verb causality, Danish, consensus, distinctiveness, attribution, Verbkausalität, Dänisch, Konsensus, Distinktheit, Attribution
• Faculties: Psychology and Education Science > Department Psychology > General Psychology II > Conference proceedings
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology
• Language: English

References

Rudolph, U. & Försterling, F. (1997). The psychological causality implicit in verbs: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 192-218.