Attribution of Responsibility by Japanese and Americans as a Function of Age

Abstract

Two age groups of Japanese and Americans were experimentally compared in the attribution of responsibility. Forty Japanese and 40 Americans were administered the AR Questionnaire, which incorporates five levels of causality (Association, Commission, Foreseeability, Intentionality, and Justification), two outcome qualities (good and bad), and two outcome intensities (high and low). Half of each nationality were age 9-10 and half were age 11-13; half of each age group in each culture were male and half were female. The results replicated previous findings due to levels, outcome quality, and outcome intensity, and supported the following conclusions: 1) Americans attribute greater responsibility for negative than for positive outcomes, whereas Japanese attribute about the same for both negative and positive outcomes; 2) although both nationalities attribute more responsibility for high than for low intensity outcomes, this difference is greater for Japanese than for Americans; 3) Japanese attribute greater responsibility at levels I and II, and less at level V than Americans; 4) the magnitude of cultural differences varies with age of subjects, level of causality, quality of outcome, and intensity of outcome. The findings were interpreted in terms of cultural differences in values and parental reward patterns.