Pitting Verbal Schemas against Information Variables in Attribution

The implicit causal schemas of interpersonal experience verbs such as “admire” and “astonish” were shown to moderate the influence of information concerning consensus and distinctiveness on causal attributions. Causal schemas in sentences such as “A astonishes B” were pitted against incongruent information concerning consensus (e.g., “A astonishes few other people”) or distinctiveness (e.g., “Many other people astonish B”), with consensus and distinctiveness defined in terms of internal and external locus rather than sentence subject and object. Subjects' causal ratings revealed that the implicit causality significantly moderated the informational influence but did not overpower it.