Attributing motives to other people

What were President George W. Bush’s aims when he ordered U.S. troops to invade Iraq in 2003? What motivated Hilary Clinton to forgive the marital indiscretions of her husband, U.S. President Bill Clinton? As these examples illustrate, questions about the motives of other people arise frequently in daily life. Yet, socialpsychological research on perceived motives has only recently developed a head of steam (Ames, 2004; Malle, 1999; Read & Miller, 1993; Reeder, Kumar, Hesson-McInnis, & Trafimow, 2002). Perceivers think of motives as mental states that describe the goals and aims of a person’s intentional actions. By attributing such motives, perceivers gain some understanding of what a person means in conversation, how the person’s actions fit together, and why the behavior occurred in the first place. This chapter outlines some of the emerging issues, with a focus on why, when, and how people infer motives. The first section of the chapter will discuss some of the reasons why people rely on motives to explain other people’s behavior. Next, we explore the particular circumstances when people are most likely to infer motives. The last section of the chapter describes some of the psychological processes that underlie inferences about motives. An integrating theme of the chapter is that perceivers of-

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