Acquiring ownership and the attribution of responsibility

How is ownership established over non-owned things? We suggest that people may view ownership as a kind of credit given to agents responsible for making possession of a non-owned object possible. On this view, judgments about the establishment of ownership depend on attributions of responsibility. We report three experiments showing that people’s judgments about the establishment of ownership are influenced by an agent’s intent and control in bringing about an outcome, factors that also affect attributions of responsibility. These findings demonstrate that people do not just consider who was first to possess an object in judging who owns it, and are broadly consistent with the view that ownership is acquired through labor. The findings also suggest that rather than exclusively being the product of social conventions, judgments about the establishment of ownership over non-owned things also depend on the psychological processes underlying the attribution of responsibility.     

An information-processing approach to attribution of responsibility

The research literature on defensive attribution of responsibility is reviewed within the framework of a nonmotivational information-processing model which proposes that attributed responsibility is a function of the difference between the perceived contingent probability (congruence) of an outcome, given a perpertrator's behavior, and the noncontingent probability (prior expectancy) of that outcome. Results of previous research on effects of the characteristics of outcomes, perpetrator, and victim on responsibility ratings are reinterpreted in terms of the influence these factors have on estimates of congruence and prior expectancy. Secondary analyses of data from a recent study of causal reasoning resulted in a correlation of .78 between attribution of responsibility and a simple additive model of estimated contingent and prior probabilities of an accident.     

Psychological causality in the attribution of responsibility for rape

According to a legal model of the attribution of responsibility for rape, judgments of physical and psychological causality of an alleged rapist are combined into overall evaluations of attacker responsibility. It was hypothesized that observers evaluate psychological causality by reconstructing the thought patterns of the accused rapist and by classifying this mental activity along dimensions of responsibility. Subjects read crime briefs, rated dimensions of responsibility, and assigned sentences. Factor analysis and analyses of variance indicate that observers organize psychological causality of the rapist around dimensions of intended violence, and the extent to which the attacker's thoughts are attributable to the victim. Multivariate analysis of variance confirmed the expected effects of the attacker's thoughts on judgments of culpability.This research was supported by a St. Louis University Beaumont Grant. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Kevin Wayne for assisting in data collection and analysis. A special thank you is extended to Audrey Feldman, who reviewed an earlier draft of this paper.     

Locus of control and attribution of responsibility for academic performance

This study tested Phares, Wilson, and Klyver's (1971) hypothesis that locus of control differences are unimportant in a situation which provides very explicit cues arousing specific expectancies regarding the locus of blame for poor performance. Two hundred and seventeen undergraduate students (134 men and 83 women) completed Rotter's I-E Scale as part of classwork in midsemester. During the last week of the semester they were routinely administered a questionnaire containing items on course evaluation, instructor evaluation, and expected grade. Expected grade was significantly correlated with ratings on several course evaluation and instructor evaluation items for internals and externals in the male, female, and total samples. However, these correlations were not significantly different for internals and externals in each sample. These results provided strong empirical support for the tested hypothesis.     

Guilt following transgression: an attribution of responsibility approach

People typically experience guilt when they violate sociomoral norms. Using Heider's (1958) attribution of responsibility model in the two experiments reported here, I examined the attributional mediators of posttransgression guilt. The basic design of both studies was a Level of Responsibility X Subject Role factorial. The first study used a role-playing methodology; in the second, subjects generated protocols describing their own past experiences. The second experiment also distinguished between attributions of responsibility, causality, and blame. In both studies, harmdoer guilt was higher following accidental as opposed to intentional transgressions. The discussion focuses on the dynamics of guilt development and reduction and on the importance of maintaining conceptual distinctions among the various attribution measures in future guilt research.     

突发事件中民众责任归因的心理需求与应对

突发事件发生后,通过责任归因对事件原因和责任归属进行推断是民众心理活动的重要特征之一。从民众心理需要来看,突发事件带来的不确定感驱使个体寻找事件的解释来实现认知闭合,控制感的不足则会让个体更加强调外部世界的秩序性,这两种需要也是事件中阴谋论传播和替罪羊效应的心理基础。相应地,在事件中负有责任的组织主体,也应当基于民众的心理需要采取适当的应对策略,来重塑组织形象和民众的信任,避免责任规避带来的负面效应。未来研究可以进一步从心理学视角补充整合性的实证证据,对突发事件的不同类型进行区分,关注责任归因与其他社会心理学变量之间的联系,以及探索适合中国社会的有效应对措施。     

Anger vs guilt: inference of responsibility attribution and interpersonal reactions

This study examined reactions toward an expression of anger or guilt. Participants' reactions were assessed after their partner for a collaborative task expressed anger or guilt due to failure on the task. Analysis indicated that participants inferred the attribution of responsibility made by the partner based on the expressed emotions; anger elicited an inference that the partner attributed the failure to the participant, while guilt led to an inference that the partner attributed the failure to the self. Further, expressers of anger were perceived as having more negative traits and were avoided more than those who expressed guilt. Discussion considered negative interpersonal effect of an expression of anger.     

Role and justice considerations in the attribution of responsibility to a rape victim

This study was designed to assess the extent to which social role and “just world” considerations would affect perceptions and attributions of responsibility to a rape victim. The rape victim was either a topless-bottomless dancer, a social worker, or a Catholic nun, and she was either acquainted or unacquainted with her assailant. In the acquainted condition, the dancer was attributed the greatest and the nun the least amount of responsibility, indicating that social role factors can govern the range of attributional judgments which might be made in any given instance. However, unacquainted victims were ascribed more responsibility for the rape than were acquainted victims, a difference which was significant when the victim was the nun. The latter findings are discussed in terms of Lerner's just world hypothesis. Significant sex differences were found in subjects' perceptions of and responses to the rape incident and, contrary to earlier findings, no relationship was found between victim attractiveness and punitiveness toward the wrongdoer.     

Unspecific postevent information,attribution of responsibility,and eyewitness performance

A large number of experiments have demonstrated that misleading postevent information may result in distortions of eyewitness performance. However, most studies have employed a quite specific piece of misinformation (the colour of a car, a type of a road sign) rather than more general postevent information. In the present experiment subjects viewed a film depicting a traffic accident and were subsequently informed that the car driver had or had not committed hit-and-run behaviour and that the motorcyclist had or had not been drinking. An additional control group received no information. In a subsequent interrogation subjects were asked to rate the amount of cause, responsibility and guilt attributable to the car driver and motorcyclist. Results showed that responsibility and guilt and the statements on the accident-related behaviour were influenced by the postevent information. In general, subjects who had received negative information about one of the persons involved attributed higher amounts of responsibility and guilt to them and provided more negative statements concerning their behaviour. However, details that were not closely related to the accident were not significantly influenced by postevent information. The results are discussed in terms of schematic memory reports.     

Effects of cooperation and competition on responsibility attribution after success and failure

Pairs of Ss cooperated (Experiment I) or competed (Experiment II) in a response-matching task whose outcome either exceeded (Success condition), met (Neutral condition), or did not reach (Failure condition) a prior-established expected outcome level. Afterwards, Ss attributed responsibility for their outcomes. It was found under both cooperation and competition that neutral outcomes tended to produce situational attribution, and success produced self-attribution. However, failure produced partner attribution under cooperation but situational attribution under competition. The results were discussed from the standpoint of two general theories of responsibility attribution, the first emphasizing problem solving based on cues, and the second emphasizing motivational biases.     

Self-serving bias in the attribution of responsibility: Cognitive versus motivational explanations

The purpose of this study is to compare the cognitive and motivational explanations of differences in the responsibility assigned to the victim of a crime. It has generally been found that the victim of a crime is assigned more responsibility for that crime by similar others if its consequences are severe. The motivational explanation for this finding is that subjects are threatened by the idea that a serious crime can happen by chance. The cognitive explanation is that serious crimes are rarer and subjects attribute more of the responsibility for rarer events to those who experience them. This study tested these two explanations by independently varying the severity and the likelihood of a crime and examining attributions of responsibility to its victim. The results of the study support the cognitive explanation. Similar others were found to attribute more responsibility for a crime to the victim when that crime was presented as rare, irrespective of whether its consequences were mild or severe. In addition, when likelihood was controlled experimentally no effect of severity upon attributions of responsibility was found. These results suggest that, within the context of attributions of responsibility to victims, patterns of attribution consistent with those predicted by theories suggesting motivational influences upon attribution may actually represent the operation of cognitive processes.     

Relationship of femininity,masculinity, and gender to attribution of responsibility

Brickman, Rabinowitz, Karuza, Coates, Cohn, and Kidder (Models of Helping and Coping, American Psychologist, 1982, 37, 368–384) have proposed four attributional models defined by two dimensions: responsibility for causes of problems and for solutions to problems. The relationship of femininity masculinity, and gender to the attributtional models was explored in a sample of 205 subjects. Femininity and masculinity were measured with the Interpersonal Disposition Inventory (IDI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Subjects also responded to two measures of the attributional models. Findings included a significant association between femininity and low internal attribution of responsibility for problem solving. Results are discussed in terms of sex role and gender differences in help seeking.This paper is based in part on a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Kentucky.I would like to thank Juris I. Berzins, Michael T. Nietzel, Jesse G. Harris, Jr., Caryl Rusbult, and Robert Straus for their assistance with the dissertation research; and Larry Panciera and Evelyn Crumpton for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Physiological evidence of an arousal-based motivational bias in the defensive attribution of responsibility

Previous research has indicated only indirectly that arousal may serve to mediate the defensive attribution of responsibility to a victim. Results of two experiments presented here, however, provide direct evidence of this relationship. Specifically, female observers' sympathetic autonomic arousal in response to another's apparent sexual victimization was positively associated with their subsequent attribution of responsibility to the victim. Data in the second experiment further demonstrated that the source of this arousal must be correctly perceived, otherwise the need to attribute responsibility in a defensive manner may be diminished.     

Post-divorce mother-son relations of delinquent and well-adjusted adolescents

This study exmined the long-term effects of divorce an adolescent boy's relations with their mothers. Eighteen ealry father-absent (before age 5), 18 late father-absent (between ages 5 and 10), and 18 infant families with a delinqunet or a well-adjusted male adolscent were evaluated using observational and self-report measures of mother-son relations, as well as personality measures. Multivariate between-groups comparisons indicated that the relations of divorced mothers and their sons were more conflictive and less warm than were mother-son relations in infant families. Moreover, mother-son relations were least positive ie early father-absent families. Regarless of the intactness of the home, fammilies with a delinquent boy evidenced difficulties in several areas of mother-adolescent relations. These findings suggest that the task of raising an adolescent son in generally more difficult in divorced than in intact families, but that the association between adolescent behavioral maladjustment and mother-adolescent relations is similar across family structures.