Nevertheless, observing people's be

Nevertheless, observing people's behaviour and taking it at face value is not what interpersonal communication is all about. Causal attribution theory proposes that, when we interact with others, we engage in an interpretative process, evaluating the individuals in terms of the possible motives that we attribute as the cause of their action. For example, we do not just observe an affluent man helping the poor and instantly become enraptured by his kindness and generosity. Rather, we tend to consider his motives first. In this light, if we attribute to him a personal gain from this act, then we may take a dim view of his behaviour, judging him negatively as a shallow and Machiavellian opportunist. By the same token, speech convergence may not be favourably received when attributions of speakers" intentions are negative. For instance, an experiment has shown that, when French Canadian listeners attributed an English Canadian's shift to French to his desire to achieve solidarity, they judged him favourably. However, when his act was attributed to pressures forcing him to converge, less positive feelings were evoked (Simard, Taylor and Giles, 1976, cited in Giles & Clair, 1979: 50).