Two studies investigated how verb causality in question formulation affects the locus of causal origin for answers. It was hypothesized that questions formulated with action verbs (join, help, cheat) cue the logical subject of a question sentence as the causal origin for answers. The reverse tendency was expected for answers to questions formulated with state verbs (like, hate, abhor), where the logical object of the question was expected to be the causal origin. The experiments provide support for the hypothesis and also show that choice of verb type in question formulation affects respondents' answers in a way that modfies the expected differences between actors' and observers' viewpoints. The influence of the causality implicit in interpersonal verbs on methodological issues in applied and theoretical settings is discussed.
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