In line with Schwarz’s (2008) suggestion of extending Situational CrisisCommunication Theory (SCCT) with Kelley’s covariation principle, the presentresearch aims to further examine the applicability of integrating a covariation-basedapproach to crisis responsibility assessment into the SCCT framework. Specifically, acontent analysis was conducted to verify the basic assumptions for applying acovariation-based approach in crisis communication context. A follow-upexperimental study was exercised to test the effect of consensus information – themissing variable in SCCT – on crisis responsibility attributions. The researchsuggested that a covariation-based approach of crisis responsiblilty assessment couldbe legitimately applied in the SCCT framework, and that crisis responsibilityassessment in the SCCT framework could be improved, at least in some particularsituations, by more consistently and systematically taking into account the threeinformation dimensions in covariation principle as integrated information patternsrather than separately considering the effect of one single information dimensionalone.Keywords: