Making Sense of the Social World and Influencing It by Using a Naive Attribution Theory of Emotions

Weiner's (1986) attribution theory of motivation and emotion assumes emotions are determined by beliefs about causality. Individuals share a naive understanding of this linkage between causal attribution and emotions and use it in order to draw inferences from and influence others' emotions. Evidence for such uses is provided and recent research and theory that goes beyond the attribution-emotion linkage is discussed. Specifically, recent research considers the naive use of a larger set of emotions and appraisals and their connections, and the role of context in this process. However, still missing is a fuller understanding when this naive knowledge is employed and how and when it is based on an explicit understanding of the emotion-appraisal linkage rather than more automatic processes.