William T. Self

Association, Culture, and Collective Imprisonment: Tests of a Two-Route Causal-Moral Model

The authors tested a model in which a groups association with an offender impacts collective imprisonment indirectly via dispositional attribution and blame to the group, culture does so indirectly via blame, and severity of outcome directly determines imprisonment. In two experiments, Easterners and Westerners made dispositional attribution, blame, and imprisonment responses to an offenders group associated with him by commission versus omission and with high versus low severity of outcome for the victim. Commission generated higher responses to the group than did omission. Collective blame and imprisonment responses were higher by Easterners than Westerners. The severity of outcome affected imprisonment in Experiment 1. Results of Experiment 1 suggested merit of the two-route causal-moral model; those of Experiment 2 confirmed the model.

Reacting to headline news: Circumstances leading to causal explanations versus implicational concerns

How do people react to the headline news they receive? According to the model of people as intuitive scientists (Kelley, 1972; Ross, 1977), people-like scientists-make causal explanations (i.e., why did an event take place?) and assign responsibility to the person, the situation, or both. However, a more recently proposed social-functionalist model (Tetlock, 2002) views people less as intuitive scientists trying to understand the world and more as intuitive prosecutors trying to protect a fragile social order. Thus, implicational concerns (i.e., how would it affect peoples lives, properties, and liberties?) with the news can also be likely reactions. Given the prescriptions of these models, the present authors tested the hypotheses that news reports evoke both causal explanations and implicational concerns among viewers, and that the degree of the two reactions depends on the valence (positive vs. negative) and theme (whether it is unusual or social order-linked) of the news. Singaporeans (N = 80) read one piece of headline news that represented a crossed level of valence (negative vs. positive) and theme (unusual vs. social order), and indicated the likelihood of causal explanations and implicational concerns as their first response to it. As hypothesized, positive news led to a greater likelihood of showing implicational concerns than of making causal explanations, the difference being reversed in the case of negative news; unusual news led to a greater likelihood of making causal explanations than of showing implication concerns; the likelihood of having implicational concerns with news related to social order was higher than making that of causal explanations; and the two responses were equally likely in the case of negative news. Overall, these results support a view of people as intuitive prosecutors interested in both causal explanations of and implicational concerns with a news report.

Balancing Fairness and Efficiency: The Impact of Identity-Blind and Identity-Conscious Accountability on Applicant Screening

This study compared two forms of accountability that can be used to promote diversity and fairness in personnel selections: identity-conscious accountability (holding decision makers accountable for which groups are selected) versus identity-blind accountability (holding decision makers accountable for making fair selections). In a simulated application screening process, undergraduate participants (majority female) sorted applicants under conditions of identity-conscious accountability, identity-blind accountability, or no accountability for an applicant pool in which white males either did or did not have a human capital advantage. Under identity-conscious accountability, participants exhibited pro-female and pro-minority bias, particularly in the white-male-advantage applicant pool. Under identity-blind accountability, participants exhibited no biases and candidate qualifications dominated interview recommendations. Participants exhibited greater resentment toward management under identity-conscious accountability.

Age-moderated effects of consequence and intent information on punishment: an intuitive prosecutorial interpretation.

ABSTRACT In responding to wrongdoings, people simultaneously pursue the goals of social control and fairness to the wrongdoer. Social control necessitates stronger weighting of consequences than causes; fairness entails the opposite. The authors hypothesized that the developmental shift from overweighting consequence to overweighting intent when determining levels of punishment illustrates a shift from a default defender of the normative order to a motivated crusader of fairness to the wrongdoer. Thus, punishment should increase slightly for intentional wrongdoings but decrease substantially for accidental wrongdoings as people age. In an experiment on disciplinary action in Singapore, 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds learned about the consequences of and intentions behind wrongdoings by peers and predicted consistency of the same act in the future, assigned blame to the wrongdoers, and recommended punishment for them. Results supported hypotheses derived from a fair-but-biased-yet-correctible model of intuitive prosecutors.