Inferences Of Responsibility And Social Motivation

Publisher Summary The story of Magic Johnson, the renowned basketball star who now carries the acquired immunodeficiency (AIDS) virus, pervaded the popular press and media in 1991, not just in the United States but around the world as well. In addition to pointing out the extensity of responsibility judgments in everyday life, the chapter analyzes the responsibility inference process and relates responsibility to emotional and social behavior. In this chapter, the emotional and behavioral significance of inferences of responsibility are addressed. The relations among responsibility judgments, feelings, and social action are considered. Three broad categories of behavior have been examined: going toward (help giving), going against (aggression), and going away from (rejection). The chapter elaborates on excuse giving, leaving aside denial, justification, and confession; although these are common tactics used to diffuse responsibility. One of the tables shows the mean anticipated anger and revealing judgments as a function of the subject population and the controllability of the cause of the broken social contract.

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