Everyday explanations of social phenomena, such as examination failure, do not rely on single causes, but rather on a variety of factors indicative of a complex relationship between a variety of causes and effects. While there are many possible explanations of examination failure, in order to obtain a fuller understanding of these explanations, it is necessary to discover how these causes link together, and the extent to which they interact or cause one another. One method that can be used to investigate the causes people give for events such as exam failure is network analysis. Network analysis can help disclose the relationships between a series of causal factors, even when these links are non-linear in nature (Breakwell & Canter, 1993). In network analysis, participants rate the presence or strength of links between nominated causes of the phenomenon in question. So for example, participants might rate that lack of studying is very likely to lead to exam failure, or that bad luck has little impact. One of the fundamental principles underlying network analysis is that individuals have common (consensual) explanations for everyday social events (Moscovici & Hewstone, 1983, p. 115). Network analysis is a quantitative methodology, and as such, the findings can be displayed pictorially in order to demonstrate the relationships of links to one another.