Recent Attribution Research in Consumer Behavior: A Review and New Directions VALERIE S. FOLKES* Recent consumer behavior research testing attribution theory principles is sum- marized and critiqued. Most studies on antecedents of causal inferences focus on how information about a product influences attributions, how the discounting effect influences liking for products, and how self-perception processes influence willingness to participate in marketing research. Research examining consequences of causal inferences focuses on product satisfaction. Major trends in attribution theory and future research directions are indicated. A ttribution research is concerned with all aspects of causal inferences: how people arrive at causal inferences, what sort of inferences they make, and what the consequences of these inferences are. Nine years ago, Mizerski, Golden, and Kernan (1979) provided an overview of four major attribution theories and re- viewed the relevant consumer behavior research from 1971 to 1978. Since that time attribution theory has remained a popular approach in social psychology (e.g., see recent reviews by Harvey and Weary 1984; Ross and Fletcher 1985); however, most of us probably agree that despite a promising beginning, attribution theory has had little impact on the field of consumer behavior. This apparent neglect is surprising. Understanding consumers' perceptions of cause-and-effect relation- ships would seem to be central to consumer behavior. It is this author's opinion that many, ifnot most, prod- ucts and services are purchased because consumers infer a causal relationship: they believe that analgesics reduce pain, deodorants improve one's social life, athletic shoes enhance performance, and so on. As the present review will substantiate, attribution theory is a rich and well- developed approach that has a great deal to say about a wide range of consumer behavior issues. For example, attribution research indicates when consumers rec- ommend products to other consumers and when they complain about problems. It sheds light on such ques- tions in persuasion as source credibility and two-sided messages. Attribution research illuminates the rela- tionship between consumers' attitudes and behaviors. The purpose of this article is to increase the awareness of attribution theory's contributions to consumer be- 'Valerie S. Folkes is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Administration, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1421. Mary Curren, Sandra Graham, Tina Kiesler, David Stewart, and Barton Weitz provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. 548 havior, as well as to review research since the Mizerski et al. article. Many recent studies address issues not raised in the Mizerski et al. review, which focused on theories forming the foundation of attribution research (Bem 1972; Heider 1958; Jones and Davis 1965; Kelley 1967, 1973). Besides summarizing studies in consumer behavior journals, the present review includes consumer behavior experiments published in psychology journals. When studies on a topic are published in a variety of outlets, as is true of attribution research in consumer behavior, its impact may be diffused. By consolidating the research, this review aims to more clearly identify issues that have attracted the interest of investigators. A secondary aim is to identify up-to-date reviews of specific topics in attribution research to aid those who wish to explore an issue in depth. The review is organized into four sections. The first section provides a brief summary of attribution theory development and key concepts. The second section identifies causal ascriptions of interest to those in con- sumer behavior, thus specifying the domains in which attribution theory is and might be useful. The article next reviews theory and recent research examining an- tecedents and consequences of these causal ascriptions. The final section provides an overview of central issues in attribution theory since the Mizerski et al. (1979) article and indicates additional directions for future re- search. THE ORIGINS OF ATTRIBUTION THEORY Attribution theory is actually several theories that share core assumptions. The seminal concepts under- lying attributional approaches are found in Heider's (1958) book, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. First, Heider believed it was valuable to understand an individual's "naive" or common sense explanations of © JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESFARCH • Vol. 14. March 1988