Donald Lehmann

An Investigation of Factors Influencing Causal Attributions in Managerial Decision Making

Coauthor(s): Sunder Narayanan.

Abstract:
This study investigates factors influencing causal attributions in managerial decision making. Three categories of factors are identified: (i) prior beliefs (ii) background frequencies, and (iii) covariation cues. The impact of factors in each of the above categories on causal attribution are studied in a marketing decision making context. Subjects demonstrated a bias toward assigning causality to variables that occurred infrequently or were controllable. Also, subjects were particularly influenced by the joint-occurrences of cause and effect variables.

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