Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality
In social contexts, people are responsible for their actions and outcomes. Diffusion of responsibility is a well-known social phenomenon: people feel less responsible when performing an action with co-actors than when acting alone. In previous studies, co-actors reduced the participant’s responsibil...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588089/full |
| _version_ | 1818969203433013248 |
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| author | Kazuki Hayashida Kazuki Hayashida Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yuki Nishi Shu Morioka Shu Morioka |
| author_facet | Kazuki Hayashida Kazuki Hayashida Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yuki Nishi Shu Morioka Shu Morioka |
| author_sort | Kazuki Hayashida |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In social contexts, people are responsible for their actions and outcomes. Diffusion of responsibility is a well-known social phenomenon: people feel less responsible when performing an action with co-actors than when acting alone. In previous studies, co-actors reduced the participant’s responsibility attribution by making the cause of the outcomes ambiguous. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the presence of co-actors creates diffusion of responsibility even in situations where it is “obvious” that both oneself and the co-actor are the causes of an outcome. To investigate this potential diffusion of responsibility, we used a temporal binding (TB) task as a measure of causal attribution. Low TB effects indicate the enhancement of external attribution (i.e., diffusion of responsibility) in perceptual processing for the action and outcomes. To investigate the influence of presence of a co-actor on causal attribution, participants were required to act under two experimental conditions: an ALONE condition (participant only) or a TOGETHER condition (with a co-actor). The only difference between the two conditions was whether the actions were shared. In addition, to make participants feel responsible, they were induced to feel guilt. In the High-harm condition, participants gave a financial reduction to a third party. When guilt was induced, participants showed lower TB effects in the TOGETHER condition compared to the ALONE condition. Our study suggests that actions with a co-actor change causal attributions even though the causes of the outcome are obvious. This may have implications for understanding diffusion of responsibility in inhumane situations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T14:16:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ceb0812b18a04b638ea4ad9731c4030d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T14:16:51Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ceb0812b18a04b638ea4ad9731c4030d2022-12-21T19:38:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-01-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.588089588089Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious CausalityKazuki Hayashida0Kazuki Hayashida1Yu Miyawaki2Yu Miyawaki3Yu Miyawaki4Yuki Nishi5Shu Morioka6Shu Morioka7Department of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Koryo, JapanDepartment of Rehabilitation, Fujiikai Rehabilitation Hospital, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Koryo, JapanResearch Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Koryo, JapanDepartment of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Koryo, JapanNeurorehabilitation Research Center, Kio University, Koryo, JapanIn social contexts, people are responsible for their actions and outcomes. Diffusion of responsibility is a well-known social phenomenon: people feel less responsible when performing an action with co-actors than when acting alone. In previous studies, co-actors reduced the participant’s responsibility attribution by making the cause of the outcomes ambiguous. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the presence of co-actors creates diffusion of responsibility even in situations where it is “obvious” that both oneself and the co-actor are the causes of an outcome. To investigate this potential diffusion of responsibility, we used a temporal binding (TB) task as a measure of causal attribution. Low TB effects indicate the enhancement of external attribution (i.e., diffusion of responsibility) in perceptual processing for the action and outcomes. To investigate the influence of presence of a co-actor on causal attribution, participants were required to act under two experimental conditions: an ALONE condition (participant only) or a TOGETHER condition (with a co-actor). The only difference between the two conditions was whether the actions were shared. In addition, to make participants feel responsible, they were induced to feel guilt. In the High-harm condition, participants gave a financial reduction to a third party. When guilt was induced, participants showed lower TB effects in the TOGETHER condition compared to the ALONE condition. Our study suggests that actions with a co-actor change causal attributions even though the causes of the outcome are obvious. This may have implications for understanding diffusion of responsibility in inhumane situations.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588089/fullcausal attributionpassing responsibilityself-serving biasco-actordiffusion of responsibility |
| spellingShingle | Kazuki Hayashida Kazuki Hayashida Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yu Miyawaki Yuki Nishi Shu Morioka Shu Morioka Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality Frontiers in Psychology causal attribution passing responsibility self-serving bias co-actor diffusion of responsibility |
| title | Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality |
| title_full | Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality |
| title_fullStr | Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality |
| title_full_unstemmed | Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality |
| title_short | Changes of Causal Attribution by a Co-actor in Situations of Obvious Causality |
| title_sort | changes of causal attribution by a co actor in situations of obvious causality |
| topic | causal attribution passing responsibility self-serving bias co-actor diffusion of responsibility |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588089/full |
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