Ascription of Responsibility for Others

This study examined subjects' attribution of responsibility to themselves for an action of another when the outcome was obtained partially by a random influence the subjects had exerted on the others' task. Participants, teachers taking their examinations in psychology, drew questions (easy vs. difficult) for their colleagues and were informed of their results (success vs. failure). Analysis of the responsibility ascriptions revealed an interactional effect. The subjects attributed to themselves more responsibility for the colleague's failure to answer correctly when they drew an easy question for the colleague as well as more responsibility for the colleague's success when the question was difficult.