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gement process they are going to use, (Reeder & Brewer, 1979) or the actual conscious intention of the defendant to behave in a certain manner, into account.

Jones and Davis (1965) Correspondent Inference Theory
Jones and Davis took this element of a person's conscious intention to act (as opposed to accidental or unthinking behaviour) into account in their study. They say that we make a correspondence inference when we see a relationship between motive and behaviour. For example, jurors may see a correspondence between the defendant behaving in an aggressive way and being an aggressive person.

According to Jones and Davis, dispositional (i.e. internal) attributions would provide jurors with information from which they can make predictions about a defendant's behaviour that they perceive to be intentional. If the defendant intended to commit the crime, then sentencing would be harsher. Jones and Davis say that there are 5 sources of information needed in order to make a correspondent inference:

Choice: If a behaviour is freely chosen it is attributed as being dispositional, i.e., the defendant must have consciously thought about all possible options and decided on this particular course of action and therefore freely chosen to commit the crime. Although this stance brings the whole debate of free will and determinism into play, and whether anyone can be said to truly choose to commit a particular act (Fischer, 1989).

Accidental vs. Intentional Behaviour: Behaviour which is perceived as being intentional is more likely to be attributed to the defendant's personality (dispositional) and behaviour which is perceived as being non-intentional is likely to be attributed to external causes (situational), although for this information to be of any benefit it would have to be gathered at the time of the action, and this is not possible for juries assessing the level of intent, if any, long after the action has occurred.

Social Desirability: Behaviour that is low in sociably desirability or that deviates from socially expected norms of behaviours leads us to make dispositional inferences. For example, when people in a particular social role (e.g. police officer, priest, or teacher) behave in ways that are not the socially expected 'norms' for that particular role, Jones and Davis would say that we can be more certain about what their personality or character is really like than when people behave as expected within the role.

Non-common effects: When the consequences of the chosen action are compared with the consequences of the alternative actions, the fewer the non-common effects are found then the more confident we can be in inferring a correspondent disposition. In jury decisions, the defendant's choice of action is evaluated and depending on the choice he/she made, inferences can be made. For example, if the defendant had a choice of two victims, one wealthy and one poor, and proceeded to choose the poor victim, then we can infer that money was not a motivator for the crime.

Hedonistic Relevance: This relates to how much the effects of a particular action are experienced as either being pleasant or unpleasant. A defendant's actions are more likely to be judged as intentional and therefore dispositional if the effects of the outcome are unpleasant.

However, Correspondent Inference Theory does not take into account