Judgments of cause and blame: the effects of intentionality and foreseeability

Cognition
David Lagnado, Shelley Channon

Abstract

What are the factors that influence everyday attributions of cause and blame? The current studies focus on sequences of events that lead to adverse outcomes, and examine people's cause and blame ratings for key events in these sequences. Experiment 1 manipulated the intentional status of candidate causes and their location in a causal chain. Participants rated intentional actions as more causal, and more blameworthy, than unintentional actions or physical events. There was also an overall effect of location, with later events assigned higher ratings than earlier events. Experiment 2 manipulated both intentionality and foreseeability. The preference for intentional actions was replicated, and there was a strong influence of foreseeability: actions were rated as more causal and more blameworthy when they were highly foreseeable. These findings are interpreted within two prominent theories of blame, [Shaver, K. G. (1985). The attribution of blame: Causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness. New York: Springer-Verlag] and [Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable control and the psychology of blame. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 556-574]. Overall, it is argued that the data are more consistent with Alicke's model of culpable control.

References

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Citations

Mar 3, 2010·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Shelley ChannonDavid Lagnado
Feb 3, 2011·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Shelley ChannonIsabelle Taylor
Jul 5, 2012·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Marine BuonTiziana Zalla
Oct 27, 2012·Cognition & Emotion·Jared PiazzaPaulo Sousa
Mar 30, 2011·Australasian Psychiatry : Bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists·Nick O'ConnorMurray Wright
May 24, 2012·Memory & Cognition·Rumen I IlievDouglas L Medin
May 16, 2012·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Tobias Gerstenberg, David A Lagnado
Nov 26, 2010·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·N CamilleL Clark
Oct 8, 2013·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Steven GreeningElizabeth Finger
Feb 13, 2016·Cognitive Science·Dylan Murray, Tania Lombrozo
Nov 28, 2012·Cognition·Marine BuonEmmanuel Dupoux
Jul 13, 2011·Cognition·Tiziana ZallaMarion Leboyer
Jan 15, 2010·Cognition·Tobias Gerstenberg, David A Lagnado
Jul 17, 2013·Cognitive Science·David A LagnadoRo'i Zultan
Aug 25, 2012·Infant and Child Development·Katherine S ChoePaul Bloom
Aug 8, 2015·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Liz Redford, Kate A Ratliff
Apr 20, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Paulo Sousa, Lauren Swiney
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Nov 19, 2015·Frontiers in Psychology·Olivier Le GuenPenelope Brown
Sep 15, 2017·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Steve Guglielmo, Bertram F Malle
Jan 9, 2021·Cognitive Science·Paul HenneFelipe De Brigard
Apr 21, 2018·Cognition·Tobias GerstenbergJoshua B Tenenbaum
Apr 2, 2021·Aggressive Behavior·Baptiste Subra

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