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TY - GEN ID - cogprints3314 UR - http://cogprints.org/3314/ A1 - Malle, Bertram TI - Attributions as Behavior Explanations: Toward a New Theory Y1 - 2003/// N2 - Attribution theory has played a major role in social-psychological research. Unfortunately, the term attribution is ambiguous. According to one meaning, forming an attribution is making a dispositional (trait) inference from behavior; according to another meaning, forming an attribution is giving an explanation (especially of behavior). The focus of this paper is on the latter phenomenon of behavior explanations. In particular, I discuss a new theory of explanation that provides an alternative to classic attribution theory as it dominates the textbooks and handbooks?which is typically as a version of Kelley?s (1967) model of attribution as covariation detection. I begin with a brief critique of this theory and, out of this critique, develop a list of requirements that an improved theory has to meet. I then introduce the new theory, report empirical data in its support, and apply it to a number of psychological phenomena. I finally conclude with an assessment of how much progress we have made in understanding behavior explanations and what has yet to be learned. AV - public KW - explanations KW - causality KW - intentionality KW - social cognition KW - theory of mind KW - folk psychology ER -