Story: Attribution of responsibility
NOT A HANDOUT
ORIGINAL STORY
Once upon a time, a husband and wife lived together in a part of the city separated by a river from the places of employment,
shopping, and entertainment. The husband had to work nights. Each evening he left his wife and took the ferry to work, returning in the
morning.
The wife soon tired of this arrangement. Restless and lonely, she would take the next ferry into town each evening and develop
relationships with a series of lovers. Anxious to preserve her marriage, she always returned home before her husband. In fact, her
relationships were always limited. When they threatened to become too intense, she would precipitate a quarrel with her current lover
and begin a new relationship.
One night she caused such a quarrel with a man we will call Lover I. He slammed the door in her face, and she started back to the
ferry .Suddenly she realized that she had forgotten to bring money for her return fare. She swallowed her pride and returned to Lover I's
apartment to borrow the fare. After all, she did have to get home. But Lover I was vindictive and angry because of the quarrel. He
slammed the door on his former lover, leaving her with no money. She remembered that a previous lover, whom we shall call Lover 2,
lived just a few doors away. Surely he would give her the ferry fare. However, Lover 2 was still so hurt from their old quarrel that he,
too, refused her the money.
Now the hour was late and the woman was getting desperate. She rushed down to the ferry and pleaded with the ferryboat captain.
He knew her as a regular customer. She asked if he could let her ride free and if she could pay the next night. But the captain insisted
that rules were rules and that he could not let her ride without paying the fare.
Dawn would soon be breaking, and her husband would be returning from work. The woman remembered that there was a free
bridge about a mile further on. But the road to the bridge was a dangerous one, known to be frequented by highwaymen. Nonetheless,
she had to get home, so she took the road. On the way a highwayman stepped out of the bushes and demanded her money. She told him
she had none. He seized her. In the ensuing tussle, the highwayman stabbed the woman, and she died.
Thus ends our story .There have been six characters: Husband, Wife, Lover I, Lover 2, Ferryboat Captain and Highwayman. We
would like you to list, in descending order of responsibility for this woman's death, all the characters. In other words, the one most
responsible is listed first; the next most responsible, second; and so forth.
REVISED STORY
Once upon a time, a husband and wife lived together in a part of the city separated by a river from the places of employment,
shopping, and entertainment. The husband had to work nights and did not want his wife to work. Each evening he left his wife and took
the ferry to work, returning in the morning.
The wife soon tired of this arrangement. Restless and lonely, she would take the next ferry into town each evening and secretly work
at a part-time job. Anxious to preserve her marriage, she always returned home before her husband. In fact, her jobs were always limited.
When they threatened to become full-time, she would precipitate a misunderstanding with her current boss and begin a new job.
One night she caused such a misunderstanding with a man we will call Boss I. He fired her, and she started back to the
ferry .Suddenly she realized that she had forgotten to bring money for her return fare. She swallowed her pride and returned to Boss I's
store to borrow the fare. After all, she did have to get home. But Boss I was vindictive and angry because of the misunderstanding. He
slammed the door on his former employee, leaving her with no money. She remembered that a previous boss, whom we shall call Boss 2,
had his store just a few doors away. Surely he would give her the ferry fare. However, Boss 2 was still so mad over their old
misunderstanding that he, too, refused her the money.
Now the hour was late and the woman was getting desperate. She rushed down to the ferry and pleaded with the ferryboat captain.
He knew her as a regular customer. She asked if he could let her ride free and if she could pay the next night. But the captain insisted that
rules were rules and that he could not let her ride without paying the fare.
Dawn would soon be breaking, and her husband would be returning from work. The woman remembered that there was a free bridge
about a mile further on. But the road to the bridge was a dangerous one, known to be frequented by highwaymen. Nonetheless, she had to
get home, so she took the road. On the way a highwayman stepped out of the bushes and demanded her money. She told him she had
none. He seized her. In the ensuing tussle, the highwayman stabbed the woman, and she died.
Thus ends our story. There have been six characters: Husband, Wife, Boss I, Boss 2, Ferryboat Captain and Highwayman. We would
like you to list, in descending order of responsibility for this woman's death, all the characters. In other words, the one most responsible is
listed first; the next most responsible, second; and so forth.
Guilty or Innocent-Attribution of Responsibility
Randolph A. Smith
Ouachita Baptist University
Arkadelphia, AR 71998
The just-world phenomenon is defined as wthe tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what
they deserve and deserve what they get" (Myers, 1993, p. 407). Belief in the just-world phenomenon appears to be related to a
behavior known as ~laming the victim" in which people are blamed for misfortunes they suffer. For example, research has shown
that respondents tend to believe that sick people are responsible for being ill, that poor people don't really deserve much better, and
that battered spouses probably did something to provoke their beatings (Myers, 1993). Another timely topic with regard to blaming
the victim is rape. Borgida and Brekke (1985) reviewed research indicating that many people believe that rape victims must have
done something to arouse or provoke their attacker by dressing or behaving seductively.
Bloyd (1990) presented a “blaming the victim" exercise from Dolgoff and Feldstein (1984). Students read or listen to the story and
attribute responsibility for the murder. Bloyd reported (and my classroom results confirm) that about half typically blame the
highwayman first and half will list the wife first (blaming the victim for her own murder). Those choosing the wife will often give
reasons such as Rshe deserved it," "she was asking for trouble, " or "she should have known better. " Dolgoff and Feldstein note
that telling the story about a widow who works nights to feed her children and who has to get home before the babysitter leaves
changes the results so that the highwayman is held responsible more often although his behavior has not changed. It appears that
the woman in the first story is held responsible for her murder because of her morals (not unlike the rape example mentioned
earlier).
My adaptation of this exercise involves testing the limits of blaming the victim based on sex (both characters and subjects), the
morality of the situation, and the "occupation" of the killer. Updating the killer's vocation to mugger from highwayman does make
him more likely to be chosen first by about a 2-1 margin over the wife (67% to 29% [4% for the husband]). Still, the wife is being
blamed for being killed by a mugger almost a third of the time.
By using two additional variations of the story , I have continued to explore the limits of this phenomenon. In the simplest variation,
I merely interchanged the husband's and wife's roles so that he was sneaking around at night with a series of lovers and was killed.
In this situation, slightly over half the subjects chose the husband as most responsible when he was killed by the mugger. On the
other hand, about 30% chose the wife as most responsible when she was killed. In the second variation (see reverse), the story had
the wife going out at night to work at a part-time job-thus her interactions were with two bosses rather than two lovers. This new
story had only a small effect on blaming the victim as the wife was still listed as most responsible 21% of the time. Using this
variation, I also looked at respondent sex as a factor. Interestingly, males listed the wife as most responsible 40% of the time
whereas females listed her first only 14% of the time.
Blaming the victim appears to be a widespread behavior-demonstrating its existence is both interesting and useful. By varying
details of the story, you can open students' eyes to some of their unconscious (or at least unspoken) prejudices toward people or
behaviors. I highly recommend this exercise.
References
Bloyd, J. R. (1990, October). Blaming the victim. Teaching activity presented at the Mid-America Conference for Teachers
of Psychology, Evansville, IN.
Borgida, E., & Brekke, N. (1985). Psycholegal research on rape trials. In A. W. Burgess (Ed.), Rape and sexual assault: A
research handbook (pp. 313-342). New York: Garland.
Dolgoff, R., & Feldstein, D. (1984). Understanding social welfare (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Myers, D. G. (1993).
Social psychology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.