Malle, B. F., & Knobe, J. (1997).
The folk concept of intentionality. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 33, 101-121.
When perceiving, explaining, or criticizing human behavior, people
distinguish between intentional and unintentional actions. To do so,
they rely on a shared folk concept of intentionality. In contrast to
past speculative models, this article provides an empirically-based
model of this concept. Study 1 demonstrates that people agree
substantially in their judgments of intentionality, suggesting a
shared underlying concept. Study 2 reveals that when asked to
directly define the term intentional, people mention four components
of intentionality: desire, belief, intention, and awareness. Study 3
confirms the importance of a fifth component, namely, skill. In light
of these findings, the authors propose a model of the folk concept of
intentionality and provide a further test in Study 4. The discussion
compares the proposed model to past ones and examines its implications
for social perception, attribution, and cognitive development.