Children's reactions to an actor as a function of expectations and of the consequences received.

The article examines how actors' expectations about the outcome of their actions and the actual outcome received affect children's impressions of them. In regard to expectations, attribution theory proposes that actors who expect punishment will be seen as intrinsically motivated since they are willing to incur punishment, while actors who anticipate reward are seen as less intrinsically motivated individuals who anticipate either reward or punishment. It examines the effects of an actor's expectations on children's perception of the actor's likeability. It suggests several hypotheses. It is hypothesized that actors who expect punishment for their behavior will be perceived as more likeable than actors who expect reward. Other being that this tendency will be more strongly indicated in the judgments of older children than in the judgments of younger children. It was also suggested concerning the effects of the consequences actually received by the actor on children's evaluations. One more hypothesis predicts that the just world tendency will be more strongly indicated in the evaluations of the younger children than in the evaluations of the older children.