Spreading the blame: The allocation of responsibility amongst multiple agents

• Published in: Cognition Vol. 115; no. 1; pp. 166 - 171
• Main Authors: Gerstenberg, Tobias, Lagnado, David A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Attribution; Attribution Theory; Biological and medical sciences; Causal models; Collective action; Collective responsibility; Competitive Behavior; Computers; Counterfactual reasoning; Distribution; Experimental games; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Games; Games, Experimental; Group Dynamics; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Models, Psychological; Prediction; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reasoning; Responsibility; Social interactions. Communication. Group processes; Social psychology; Social Responsibility; Counterfactual reasoning; Collective responsibility; Experimental games; Attribution; Causal models; Human; Social group; Experimental game; Experimental study; Responsibility; Counterfactual thinking; Social cognition; Reasoning; Models; Causality
• ISSN: 0010-0277; 1873-7838; 1873-7838
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.12.011

How do people assign responsibility to individuals in a group context? Participants played a repeated trial experimental game with three computer players, in which they counted triangles presented in complex diagrams. Three between-subject conditions differed in how the group outcome was computed from the individual players’ answers. After each round, participants assigned responsibility for the outcome to each player. The results showed that participants’ assignments varied between conditions, and were sensitive to the function that translated individual contributions into the group outcome. The predictions of different cognitive models of attribution were tested, and the Structural Model ( Chockler & Halpern, 2004) predicted the data best.