Blame attribution and information processing

Abstract

The research examined the process of blame attribution within interpersonal relationships. Two studies were conducted. First study aimed to investigate the effect of severity of norm violation and judge and protagonist gender on the number of causes generated under person and relationship categories. Boğaziçi students taking psychology courses participated in the study. The participants generated more causes under person and fewer causes under relationship categories in the mild compared to the severe condition. An information processing approach to blame attribution was adopted in the second study which examined the effects of severity of norm violation, decision making rule (inclusion and exclusion) and judge and protagonist gender on the judged relevance of the information under different categories as possible causes of the event. The relationship between the proportion of information chosen under different categories, attribution of responsibility and blame was also examined. Boğaziçi students taking psychology courses in Boğaziçi University participated in the study. The results indicated that the size of information set was larger in the exclusion than inclusion condition. Additionally, differences between categories were more prevalent in the inclusion than exclusion conditions. Consistent with the predictions, greater number of negative information selected for female protagonist. Overall, the results indicated that the fundamental attributions error declined with increased severity of norm violation. Moreover, severity of norm violation, decision making rule, type and amount of information affected the process of responsibility and blame attribution.