Communication context, explanation, and social judgment

• Published in: European journal of social psychology Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 199 - 209
• Main Authors: Todorov, Alexander, Lalljee, Mansur, Hirst, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.03.2000; Wiley
• Subjects: Attribution; Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Communication; Contextual factors; England; Explanation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Interpersonal Communication; Judgment; New York City, New York; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Responsibility; Social judgement; Social judgments; Social psychology; Context; Human; Social attitude; Language; Responsibility; Verbal communication; Judgment
• ISSN: 0046-2772; 1099-0992
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(200003/04)30:2<199::AID-EJSP984>3.0.CO;2-L

The effects of the communication context on explanations and judgments were investigated in two experiments where participants explained a boy's violent behavior either to a disciplinarian or to a permissive addressee. The results of Study 1 showed that the participants' explanations varied as a function of communication context, but their judgments of responsibility were not influenced. In Study 2, the communication demand was either subtle or blatant. The participants' explanations varied as a function of communication context independently from the communication demand. However, participants' responsibility judgments were influenced only when this demand was subtle. The implications of this for explanations in everyday social settings are considered. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.