Blame and praise: responsibility attribution patterns in decision chains

How do people attribute responsibility when an outcome is not caused by an individual but results from a decision chain involving several people? We study this question in an experiment, in which five voters sequentially decide on how to distribute money between them and five recipients. The recipie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental economics : a journal of the Economic Science Association 2024-07, Vol.27 (3), p.637-663
Main Authors: Bhatia, Deepti, Fischbacher, Urs, Hausfeld, Jan, Stumpf, Regina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attribution
Behavioral/Experimental Economics
Blame
Decision making
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Experiments
Game Theory
Microeconomics
Money
Operations Research/Decision Theory
Praise
R&D
Research & development
Social and Behav. Sciences
Voters
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Summary:How do people attribute responsibility when an outcome is not caused by an individual but results from a decision chain involving several people? We study this question in an experiment, in which five voters sequentially decide on how to distribute money between them and five recipients. The recipients can reward or punish each voter, which we use as measures of responsibility attribution. In the aggregate, we find that responsibility is attributed mostly according to the voters’ choices and the pivotality of the decision, but not for being the initial voter. On the individual level, we find substantial heterogeneity with three overall patterns: Little to no responsibility attribution, pivotality-driven, and focus on choices. These patterns are similar when praising voters for good outcomes and blaming voters for bad outcomes.
ISSN:1386-4157
1573-6938
DOI:10.1007/s10683-024-09833-1