TY - JOUR
T1 - Accidents and Attributions
T2 - Differential Consequences for Religious Bias
AU - Smith, Rachel A.
AU - Fink, Edward L.
AU - Cai, Deborah A.
AU - Montagnolo, Carolyn E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - As people hear about accidents, they may wonder who is responsible. We extended this work by testing a model of a two-party attribution process that starts with perceptions of self-other overlap. How we communicate about accidents can also shape how people think about the parties involved. To that end, we also examined the effects of including extra-evidential (social) information about the parties involved (e.g., a person’s religion) on self-other overlap and group bias. Participants (N = 252) read one of 12 versions of a vignette about a two-party car accident that varied accident severity, accident commission (i.e., implicit responsibility), and the driver’s stated religion (Christian, Muslim, or unstated). Results showed that as people perceived larger differences between themselves and the accident victim, they judged the victim as more responsible for the accident, the driver as less responsible, and the victim’s behavior as a more essential aspect of the victim’s character. In addition, we found that the driver’s religious label and accident commission interact to influence participants’ perceptions of themselves in relation to the driver (self-driver) and in relation to the victim (self-victim) in ways that advantaged the Christian driver but not the Muslim driver. The attribution process also had consequences for Muslim, but responsibility attribution, religious bias, self-other overlap, two-party accidents, accident severity ssed.
AB - As people hear about accidents, they may wonder who is responsible. We extended this work by testing a model of a two-party attribution process that starts with perceptions of self-other overlap. How we communicate about accidents can also shape how people think about the parties involved. To that end, we also examined the effects of including extra-evidential (social) information about the parties involved (e.g., a person’s religion) on self-other overlap and group bias. Participants (N = 252) read one of 12 versions of a vignette about a two-party car accident that varied accident severity, accident commission (i.e., implicit responsibility), and the driver’s stated religion (Christian, Muslim, or unstated). Results showed that as people perceived larger differences between themselves and the accident victim, they judged the victim as more responsible for the accident, the driver as less responsible, and the victim’s behavior as a more essential aspect of the victim’s character. In addition, we found that the driver’s religious label and accident commission interact to influence participants’ perceptions of themselves in relation to the driver (self-driver) and in relation to the victim (self-victim) in ways that advantaged the Christian driver but not the Muslim driver. The attribution process also had consequences for Muslim, but responsibility attribution, religious bias, self-other overlap, two-party accidents, accident severity ssed.
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U2 - 10.20879/acr.2023.20.002
DO - 10.20879/acr.2023.20.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85169009959
SN - 1738-2084
VL - 20
SP - 48
EP - 68
JO - Asian Communication Research
JF - Asian Communication Research
IS - 1
ER -