The nature of the causes and the attribution of responsibility in accidents

Abstract

The present study investigated the importance of the nature of causes in attribution responsibility for an accident. Specifically, the experiment explored the relative importance of the immediate cause of an accident versus the prior cause of the accident. The research was conducted on Bogaziçi University campus. Each of the subjects (61 male 39 female) read the SLX fictitious insurance company accident reports in which the immediate (internal or external) and prior causes (internal, external or none) were experimentally manipulated. It was hypothesized that when prior causes are present responsibility attributions based on immediate causes will be affected by prior causes. Their increasing or decreasing effects on attribution of responsibility mostly depend on their type as either internal or external causes. The results showed that a prior cause opposite to the immediate cause reversed the effects ~of the immediate cause. The results, also, indicate that subjects who were drivers took prior causes into consideration to a greater extent.