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Shaver's concept of "defensive attribution" argued for minimization of assigned responsibility based on perceived similarities between the attributor and the person(s) involved. Shaver was able to demonstrate this response by describing events to test subjects; varying the situations and people described to either match or be significantly different from the subjects: as similarity with witnesses increased, attributions of responsibility decreased.
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have consistently found that male participants blamed rapists less than female participants did, and that male participants blamed the rape victims more than female participants did. These findings support Shaver's similarity-responsibility hypothesis: male participants, who are personally similar to
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Shaver (1970) recognized that the similarity of the witness to the person(s) involved in the misfortune – in terms of situation, age, gender, personality, etc. – changes the amount of responsibility one is ready to ascribe. Where
Walster's work suggested increases in attributed responsibility,
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between the observer and the people involved in the mishap, i.e. more responsibility is attributed to the people involved who are dissimilar to the observer. Assigning responsibility allows the observer to believe that the mishap was controllable and thus preventable.
208:(male) rapists, blame rapists less than female participants who are dissimilar to rapists. On the other hand, female participants, who are personally similar to (female) rape victims, blame the victims less than male participants.
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Walster (1966) hypothesized that it can be frightening to believe that a misfortune could happen to anyone at random, and attributing responsibility to the person(s) involved helps to manage this emotional reaction.
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studies on the defensive attribution hypothesis, in which he found strong evidence to support Shaver's hypothesized negative relationship between similarity and responsibility.
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if, despite everything, the mishap does occur, because blame can be assigned to the "other" (person or situation). The use of defensive attributions is considered a
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350:"Motivational biases in the attribution of responsibility for an accident: A meta-analysis of the defensive-attribution hypothesis"
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Shaver, K. G. (1970). "Defensive
Attribution: Effects of severity and relevance on the responsibility assigned for an accident".
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Greenberg, Jeff (2007). "Defensive
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or a cause in a similar situation. The attributions of blame are negatively correlated to
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because an individual will change their beliefs about a situation based upon their
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Aronson, Elliot; Wilson, Timothy D.; Akert, Robin M.; Sommers, Samuel R. (2015).
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or desires rather than the factual characteristics of the situation.
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Psychology
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A defensive attribution may also be used to protect the person's
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Weiten, Wayne; Dunn, Dana S.; Hammer, Elizabeth Yost (2014).
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the causes for a mishap to minimize their fear of being a
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