The Influence of Situational Variation, Associated Attributions, and Emotions on Support Providers' Interaction Goals

Abstract

Consistent with predictions, attributions provoked by situational manipulations influenced both emotional responses and communication goals. Moreover, path analyses indicated that emotion mediated the influence of attributions on communication goals in several instances. However, attributions also exerted unmediated effects on several communication goals, and emotions exerted more influence on some goals than could be explained by attributions. These results indicate that support providers do respond strategically to perceived situational variation when developing communication goals. The results also indicate the need for further research addressing the complexity of attributional and emotional influence on pro-social communication and behavior.