“It's the economy,honey!” Couples' blame attributions during the 2007–2009 economic crisis

In the current study the authors surveyed a nationally representative sample of 632 cohabiting American couples during the height of the 2007–2009 economic crisis to examine associations between relationship quality and partners' attributions of causation and blame for household money problems. In couples where women attributed causation for household money problems to their partners' debts, spending, or employment, both they and their partners reported lower relationship satisfaction unless women also reported blaming the national economic crisis. Blaming one's partner for household money problems was associated with lower relationship satisfaction unless individuals also blamed themselves. Being blamed for household money problems by one's partner was associated with lower satisfaction among women, but this association was attenuated if the male partner also blamed the economic crisis.     

Mothers' and fathers' negative responsibility attributions and perceptions of children's problem behavior

Parents' negative responsibility attributions about their child's misbehavior are related to a perception that the child has more behavior problems. This study used a dyadic framework to explore how mothers' and fathers' attributions relate to their own perceptions and to their partner's perceptions of the child's externalizing problems. Participants included 102 couples interviewed when children were 7 years old. Results confirmed that mothers reported more externalizing behavior problems in their children than did fathers, and fathers of boys reported more child behavior problems than fathers of girls. Dyadic analyses suggested that parents' negative responsibility attributions of the child's behavior were associated with greater perceptions of child externalizing problems on behalf of parents and their partners.     

Connectedness to the criminal community and the community at large predicts 1‐year post‐release outcomes among felony offenders

Connectedness to one's community relates to positive psychological and behavioral outcomes. But what implications do connectedness to distinct communities—the criminal community and the community at large—have for inmates about to be released from jail? This study (N = 383) prospectively examined connectedness to the criminal community and community at large prior to release from jail and functioning at 1‐year post‐release. Connectedness to the community at large positively predicted community adjustment, whereas connectedness to the criminal community positively predicted recidivism. Targeting both types of community connectedness may enhance interventions intended to undermine recidivism and increase positive outcomes for inmates.     

The effect of subject's race and other's race on judgments of causality for success and failure

This study examined the proposition that blacks and whites make dispositional attributions for an in-group's positive behaviors and an out-group's negative behaviors. The study also examined whether this positive in-group bias was caused by dislike of the out-group or belief in a stereotype. Thus, blacks and whites made attributions to black and white others who succeeded or failed on tasks for which there was either no stereotype or a more negative stereotype of whites than of blacks. An out-group other's failure on both tasks was attributed to lack of ability more than was an in-group other's failure. This finding suggests that the in-group bias is caused by dislike of the out-group. Furthermore, in success conditions subjects' attributions to the in-group or out-group other did not differ. It was suggested that these attributions may result from a combination of an in-group bias and a polarized appraisal.     

Mothers’ Attributions About Child Misbehavior: Can Situational Suggestions Change General Perceptions?

Mothers’ attributions about children’s misbehavior were experimentally manipulated to examine causal relationships among attributions, mood, and behavior and assess whether suggestion can change mothers’ general perceptions. Forty mothers of children aged 33 to 71 months were primed with dysfunctional child-referent (child responsible) or environment-referent (situation caused) attributions before a parent-child interaction. Mothers in the dysfunctional child-referent condition placed greater responsibility on children, reported less positive mood and endorsed more overly reactive discipline, and their children displayed more negative mood and misbehavior. The experimental manipulation also affected mothers’ general child attributions. Understanding how attributions form and change has implications for parenting interventions.     

Holistic Versus Analytic Thinking Explains Collective Culpability Attribution

Classical attribution theories of behavioral responsibility attribution emphasize that individuals should not be blamed for their mere association with a wrongdoer. Nonetheless, perceivers sometimes blame the wrongdoer's associates for the wrongdoer's misdeed even when those associates are not causally connected to the wrongdoing. In an experiment conducted in Singapore, we found that collective culpability attributions result from holistic thinking—the tendency to attribute causal connectedness between discrete entities or events. Activating holistic thinking enhanced perceptions of causal impacts of distal events and facilitated collective culpability attributions. We discuss these results in terms of their implications for understanding the nature of collective culpability and research on holistic thinking.     

Bystanders' reactions towards co‐punishment events in the Taiwanese military: Examining the moderating effects of organizational norms

The present study examined bystanders' justice perceptions about co‐punishment events. In a sample of 169 logistic officers in the Taiwanese military, responsibility attributions (i.e. liability attributed to co‐punished persons) had a negative relationship with perceived harshness, and a positive relationship with perceived procedural justice. In addition, the effects of responsibility attributions on procedural justice were weaker if the person perceived stronger rather than weaker organizational norms of co‐punishment.     

The Role of Police Perceptions and Practices in the Development of “Public Disorder”1,2

Recent studies suggest that crowd conflict needs to be understood as an interaction between the crowd and out‐groups such as the police. This paper describes a questionnaire survey in which 80 police officers from 2 United Kingdom forces were asked about their perceptions of crowds, appropriate “public order” policing methods, and attributions of responsibility for crowd conflict. As predicted, police officers saw the composition of crowds as mixed; yet they also constructed a dichotomy between a powerful minority, capable of exerting influence in the service of disorder, and a majority, who are unable to resist this influence. Police officers did not clearly endorse the view that crowds pose a homogeneous threat. They recommended control and quick intervention to prevent the escalation of crowd violence but denied that such methods might themselves contribute to conflict. Path analysis provides suggestive evidence that these perceptions of the crowd are related as part of a coherent ideology. Overall, these results offer support for the elaborated social identity model of crowd behavior as a dynamic intergroup process.     

Responding to sexual harassment complaints: Effects of a dissolved workplace romance on decision-making standards

We introduce and provide support for an ethical decision-making framework as an explanation for the social–cognitive process through which observers make decisions about a sexual harassment complaint that stems from a prior workplace romance. We conducted two experiments to examine effects of features of a dissolved hierarchical workplace romance and subsequent harassing behavior on raters' responses to a sexual harassment complaint. In Experiment 1, results based on a sample of 217 employees indicate that their attributions of responsibility for the harassment mediated the link between their knowledge of features of the romance and three recommended personnel actions. In Experiment 2, results based on a sample of 258 members of the Society for Human Resource Management indicate that their degree of recognition of the accused's social–sexual behavior as immoral mediated the link between their knowledge of features of the romance and harassment and their attributions of responsibility. Raters' attributions of responsibility, in turn, predicted three recommended personnel actions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications from an ethical decision-making perspective.     

Attributions of Blame in Sexual Assault to Perpetrators and Victims of Both Genders1

Previous research found that men attribute more blame to rape victims than do women; men also attribute less blame to perpetrators. In rape situations with a male perpetrator and a female victim, the roles of perpetrator and victim are confounded with gender category. To determine whether men are more lenient toward perpetrators or toward other males, the present study examined attributions of blame in scenarios that varied the gender category of both perpetrator and victim. Results showed that men's and women's attributions of blame to perpetrators were based on the role that was enacted, rather than gender per se: Men attributed less blame to perpetrators than did women, regardless of the perpetrator's gender category, indicating that men were more lenient toward perpetrators than were women. In addition, when the victim was female, the perpetrator was blamed more and the victim was blamed less than when the victim was male.     

Understanding Attributions of Blame in Stranger Rape and Date Rape Situations: An Examination of Gender,Race, Identification,and Students' Social Perceptions of Rape Victims1

This study examined factors that may influence attributions of rape victims. Three hundred and three university students completed a questionnaire, which included a measure of dispositional empathy and a vignette depicted either a date rape or a stranger rape situation. Subjects rated the extent that they blamed the rape victim as well as the degree to which they identified with the victim and perpetrator. Results indicated that male students blamed the victim to a greater extent than did female students; students consistently attributed more blame to the victim in date rape situations than they did in stranger rape situations; and, while empathy was not associated with students' attributions, perceptions of similarity to the rape victim and perpetrator were both related to attributions of blame. These findings are consistent with the notion of “judgmental leniency” presented in Shaver's defensive attribution theory (1970). Implications for rape prevention efforts and future research are also discussed.     

Effects of Manipulation on Attributions of Causation,Free Will,and Moral Responsibility

If someone brings about an outcome without intending to, is she causally and morally responsible for it? What if she acts intentionally, but as the result of manipulation by another agent? Previous research has shown that an agent's mental states can affect attributions of causal and moral responsibility to that agent , but little is known about what effect one agent's mental states can have on attributions to another agent. In Experiment 1, we replicate findings that manipulation lowers attributions of responsibility to manipulated agents. Experiments 2–7 isolate which features of manipulation drive this effect, a crucial issue for both philosophical debates about free will and attributions of responsibility in situations involving social influence more generally. Our results suggest that “bypassing” a manipulated agent's mental states generates the greatest reduction in responsibility, and we explain our results in terms of the effects that one agent's mental states can have on the counterfactual relations between another agent and an outcome.     

Mothers' attributions and expectancies regarding their conduct-disordered children

As an extension of Patterson's family coercion model, we hypothesized that parental attributions about the causes of child misbehavior and parental expectancies concerning the effectiveness of parenting techniques are involved in the establishment and maintenance of coercive exchanges. Mothers of 40 conduct-disordered children and 40 matched control children completed questionnaires measuring their attributions regarding the causes of their children's misbehavior and their expectations concerning the general and personal effectiveness of parenting techniques. Results supported the hypotheses: parents of conduct-disordered children were more likely to regard their children's misbehavior as intentional and to attribute it to stable, global causes beyond the parents' control. They also were less likely to see their own parenting as effective. We speculate that these parents hold cognitive stances of blame and helplessness that contribute to aversive parent behavior as well as to parent withdrawal in the face of escalating child aggressiveness.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation conducted by Anne Davison Baden while at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and was presented in part at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 1989.     

Taking the 10-Year-Old Offender to Jail: An Alternative to “Scared Straight”‘

Young boys ages 8–12 were taken to jail following law offenses. This program is contrasted to the Lifer's Program at Rahway State Prison.     

Responsibility Attributions for Drunken Behavior: The Role of Expectancy Violation1

Research on attributions about drunken aggression has suggested that intoxication serves to excuse the aggressor while increasing blame to the victim. In this study, we examined subjects' responses to a scenario depicting a violent interaction in which intoxication of aggressor and victim, victim's behavior, and aggressor's previous violent background were varied. We predicted that to the extent that the violent act violated the expectations of the observer, alcohol intoxication would serve to decrease dispositional and responsibility attributions to the aggressor. Instead, the findings showed that alcohol use led to increased attributions of causality, blame, and responsibility for both aggressor and victim. The results are discussed in terms of both attribution theory and societal factors influencing the acceptability of excuses involving alcohol.     

Attributions of Responsibility in Cases of Sexual Harassment: The Person and the Situation1

When observers learn about a case of sexual harassment, it is common for them to assign responsibility to the victim and perpetrator. However, attributions of responsibility are complex judgments often based on variables beyond the case's details (e.g., attitudes). The present study examined how victim response, victim and perpetrator gender, and participant gender and gender‐role attitudes influenced participants' attributions. Victim and perpetrator responsibility were measured before and after participants knew the victim's reaction in order to examine whether new information would alter participants' attributions. Consistent with previous research, gender differences were found for attributions and attitudes. Victim and perpetrator gender did not affect attributions. However, biases appeared in open‐ended responses. Finally, only females made distinctions of responsibility across victim reaction condition.     

Effects of Viewing “Holocaust” on Germans and Americans: A Just-World Analysis1

This study examines attributions of blame to the Nazis and the Jews for the events of the holocaust. The sample consisted of Germans and Americans who had viewed the television series “Holocaust” and comparison groups who had not seen the program. It was found that among viewers who identified with the Nazis, attributions of blame to the Jews were higher than among nonviewers or viewers who identified with the Jews. Attributions of blame to the Nazis did not vary as a function of viewing the television series. However, people who identified with the Nazis blamed the Nazis less for the holocaust than people who identified with the Jews. These results are discussed in terms of the justworld hypothesis (Lerner & Miller, 1978) and their implications for media presentations on the victims of oppression.     

Realism,instrumentalism, and the intentional stance

One of Dennett's principal arguments for an instrumentalistic construal of intentional attributions (e.g., attributions of belief, etc.) is that such attributions are environment relative. I argue that one can and should adopt a realist perspective toward such attributions, but accommodate their environmental relativity by treating intentional properties as relational properties. By doing so one acquires a useful perspective on experimental cognitive psychology; in particular, one can overcome the temptation to treat ecological accounts and information processing accounts as incompatible alternatives and come to see them as mutually supportive. Treating intentional properties as relational may be counter-intuitive, but I provide examples of how other sciences have had to treat what seem to be intrinsic properties as relational.     

Perceived Responsibility and Blame for Economic Success and Failure: Social Class and Employment Status Comparisons

The present study tested the proposition that social class and employment status would differentially affect attributions of responsibility and blame concerning positive and negative economic outcomes. The hypothesis here is that subjects will not blame a person who fails to get a job after taking a retraining program. The hypothesis is based upon the assumption that individuals on the lower rung of the economic ladder are aware of the external circumstances operating against economic security. As predicted, the person experiencing failure was neither held responsible nor blamed for his outcome. Also social class and employment status affected perceptions of the reasons for the successful outcome.