Salience and Assignment of Blame to Victims

Abstract
The effects of salience (conspicuousness) of victim and situation, perspective of respondent, and sex of subject on attributions of responsibility for a robbery were examined utilizing 78 male and 107 female undergraduates. Greater blame was attributed to the victim and the victim's behavior when the salience of the victim was high than when it was low. High salience of the situation decreased attributions of responsibility to the victim's behavior. Subjects attributed relatively greater blame to the victim when responding in terms of others' rather than their own attributions. Implications regarding measures of attribution and effects of newspaper accounts of crimes were discussed.

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