Validation of a Set of Stimuli to Investigate the Effect of Attributional Processes on Social Motivation in Within-Subject Experiments

Enrico Fucci,Oussama Abdoun,Antoine Lutz,Jessy Deroche,Constanza Baquedano

doi:10.1525/collabra.21937

Abstract

Attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering is one of the main factors that influence responses to individuals in distress. While the role of attributional processes on prosocial motivation has been widely investigated in social psychology, only few attempts have been made to characterize their behavioural and neurophysiological underpinnings. This is partly due to the lack of stimuli that can facilitate within-subject experimental designs. To overcome this problem, we created a set of stimuli consisting of videos depicting people in different situations of distress. Each video is paired with short stories that aim to manipulate the perceived degree of responsibility of the main character. To validate the stimuli, we investigated the effect of different context-video pairs on self-report measures of participants’ subjective experience. We found that different contexts preceding the same video can influence blame and responsibility judgments, affective responses and willingness to help. In a complementary analysis, we replicated previous findings on the influence of empathy and responsibility on willingness to help, showing how the latter is mediated by moral judgments. Finally, we observed a general increase in responses times when videos were paired with responsible contexts. We provide interpretations of this finding that can relate attribution accounts to prominent theories in moral psychology. Overall, this study highlights the possibility of expanding existing theories on prosocial motivation by implementing a set of stimuli that includes multiple scenarios and allows for the collection of third person measures in within-subject designs.

Highlights

Within evolutionary analysis, blameworthiness of the sufferer is one of the main factors that modulate the observer’s reaction to others’ suffering (Goetz et al, 2010)
We created and validated a set of stimuli that can be implemented in experiments investigating the impact of attributional processes on responses to suffering and helping behaviour using within-subject designs and/or third person measures
To validate the newly created set of stimuli, we investigated the effect of different context-video pairs on selfreported dimensions of subjective experience

Summary

Introduction

Blameworthiness of the sufferer is one of the main factors that modulate the observer’s reaction to others’ suffering (Goetz et al, 2010). The degree to which a person is perceived as being responsible for their suffering is an important mediator of blame attribution, affective responses and willingness to help This effect has been widely investigated over the last decades by attributional accounts of social behaviours such as help giving and aggression (Weiner, 2006). Judgments of responsibility influence the emotional reaction toward a person in need (e.g. eliciting sympathy or anger). This will, in turn, affect helping intentions and behavioural responses. Attribution of responsibility can influence the disposition of healthcare professionals towards patients (Philip et al, 2014), the reactions to victims of cyberbullying (Weber et al, 2013) and the seeking of professional help in individuals affected by mental health problems (Mojtabai, 2010; Vogel et al, 2007)

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Conclusion