Yours, mine, and ours: Mutual attributions for nonverbal behaviors in couples' interactions

In this article, we argue that nonverbal cues act much like other behaviors in triggering attribution making in couples' interactions. In a test of this contention with 60 couples, we found that negative behaviors were more likely than positive nonverbal cues to be noticed, satisfaction was related to attributions for positive behaviors, mutual attributions for the same behaviors differed significantly, and self-other attributional differences were enhanced by relational satisfaction. These results extend previous applications of attribution theory by providing some validation for the use of attribution theories with nonverbal behaviors and by showing that attribution making occurs in a way that reflects the mutually occurring, dyadic level of interpersonal communication.