[1] Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Fritz Heider in the early 20th century, and the theory was further advanced by Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner.
Fritz Heider discovered Attribution theory during a time when psychologists were furthering research on personality, social psychology, and human motivation.
"[7] Heider extended this idea to attributions about people: "motives, intentions, sentiments ... the core processes which manifest themselves in overt behavior".
[7] Fritz Heider's most famous contribution to psychology started in the 1940s when he began studying and accumulating knowledge on interpersonal behavior and social perception.
He compiled these findings into his 1958 book “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations,”[8] and Heider's work became widely recognized as the best source of knowledge on Attribution theory.
Heider's second goal was to redefine the understanding of “common-sense psychology”[8] in order to develop his own scientific theory that explains social perception in humans.
[18] When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the individual's characteristics such as ability, personality, mood, efforts, attitudes, or disposition.
[25] Bernard Weiner proposed that individuals have initial affective responses to the potential consequences of the intrinsic or extrinsic motives of the actor, which in turn influence future behavior.
People in individualist cultures, generally Anglo-America and Anglo-Saxon European, are characterized as societies which value individualism, personal goals, and independence.
People in collectivist cultures are thought to regard individuals as members of groups such as families, tribes, work units, and nations, and tend to value conformity and interdependence.
These research findings are further supported by aggravation of the perception that there is less of a role in the presence of psychological development of minorities as opposed to their Caucasian counterparts.
[37] For example, when a person scores a low grade on a test, they find situational factors to justify the negative event such as saying that the teacher asked a question that he/she never went over in class.
Research has shown that dispositional attribution can be influenced by explicit inferences (i.e. instructions or information provided to an individual) that can essentially "guide" a person's judgement.
However, an alternative information processing explanation is that when the outcomes match people's expectations, they make attributions to internal factors; for example, someone who passes a test might believe it was because of their intelligence.
[44] The defensive attribution hypothesis is a social psychological term referring to a set of beliefs held by an individual with the function of defending themselves from concern that they will be the cause or victim of a mishap.
Despite the fact there was no other information provided, people will automatically attribute that the accident was the driver's fault due to an internal factor (in this case, deciding to drive while drunk), and thus they would not allow it to happen to themselves.
[45] The arousal often produces a feeling of mental or even physical discomfort either leading the individual to alter their own attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors or attributions of the situation.
[51] A study done by Patrick Lowery and John Burrow found that many judicial actors subconsciously attempt to justify simplifications of complex cases by using societal "norms and values"[51] that "include evaluations of stability, consistency, or volatility.
Juveniles that come from single-parent homes are more likely to be prosecuted and charged with crimes; this information is known to jurors or judges and could add bias into a decision made by them.
[62] The Depressive attributional style is defined by high levels of pessimism, rumination,[63] hopelessness, self-criticism,[64] poorer academic performance,[65] and a tendency to believe negative outcomes and events are one's own fault.
A study conducted by researchers at Tsinghua University found that this style was common amongst Buddhists due to cultural beliefs in ideas such as Karma yet they did not demonstrate increased levels of depression.
[71] However, the ASQ has been criticized, with some researchers preferring to use a technique called Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanation (CAVE) in which an individual's ordinary writings are analyzed to assess whether s/he is vulnerable to the depressive attributional style.
The combination of internal factors, mixed with a stable response, complimented by the fact that old age is uncontrollable, causes low motivation, especially in elderly women, which leads to health problems.
[79] By examining Croatian combat sport competitors, the research enriches the attribution literature and provides insights for optimizing athletic performance.
[82] Laurent Brun, Benoit Dompnier, and Pascal Pansu conducted a study examining interpersonal relationships in Attribution theory.
Studies conducted in Algeria and Eastern Japan share different results when analyzing speaking tasks and oral expressions of EFL.
In particular, individuals who attribute negative outcomes to internal, stable and global factors reflect a view in which they have no control over their situation.
A study conducted by Elvin Yao and Jason Siegel looked further into Weiner's definition of Attribution theory and how people express emotions when the intentional spreading of COVID occurs.
[92] These high levels of frustration also led to a desire to punish the person intentionally spreading the virus, especially when the spreader was in complete control of their circumstances and knowledge of their actions.
[92] Furthermore, whether or not a “spreader” had control of the factors surrounding the spreading of the virus, as long as the person had a high perceived intentionality then other people responded with anger.