Children's Use of a Causal Attribution Schema and the Inference of Manipulative Intentions

KARNIOL, RACHEL, and Ross, MICHAEL. Children's Use of a Causal Attribution Schema and the Inference of Manipulative Intentions. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 463-468. 2 studies were conducted with children in kindergarten and grades 1-3 to test the hypothesis that the attribution of manipulative intentions to the donor underlies the tendency to discount intrinsic interest in the presence of rewards. The children were asked to make attributions for the behavior of story characters who had been offered a reward for task engagement. As hypothesized, a significant relation was obtained between frequency of use of the discounting principle and inferences of manipulative intentions (study 1). As well, making the manipulative intentions of the donor salient increased the likelihood that children who had not previously discounted would do so (study 2). The results were interpreted in terms of Flavell's model of person perception.