Blame, Responsibility and Attribution Error
Yesterday’s WSJ featured an article about blame that notes among other things that "Americans are beset with blame mongering". Well, all we need to do is read the news to know that finger pointing seems to be the first step we take in coming to terms with a problem.
The WSJ, along with every other news source reported that George Bush was taking responsibility for the failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina. Blogs weighed in with debits and credits for Bush’s announcement. Many highlighted failures on the part of Nagin and Blanco and Margaret Carlson writes in the LA Times on the whole blame mess an article entitled, "Cashing in on the Blame". In this article, as with others, Bush is blamed for taking blame. Further, this article notes that Bush must have taken a page from JFK’s book who "subverted the blame game by admitting he had blundered at the Bay of
Pigs. He proved you can diminish blame by taking responsibility." I guess this must mean that no one has taken responsibility for much since 1961.
The WSJ article notes that blame is rooted in nature and nurture. The original finger pointers started in the Garden of Eden…so there you have nature; instructions for blaming soon followed and became nurture. So, we learned to blame so that we don’t have to accept responsibility for negative things. But then, after we attribute blame for the negative event or outcome , we are still left with something or somebody that has to change or be rectified. So we have more than one kind of /blame/responsibility really: I take the blame/responsibility for the situation and I take responsibility for fixing it/changing it versus I give you responsibility for this (blame) and you need to take responsibility and fix it/change it versus I take responsibility for the situation and I take responsibility for fixing it/changing it.
All of this seems to lead to attribution theory and the social psychologist Heider who drew a few boxes,
triangles and balls and then explained that external attribution occurs when we cognitively attribute causality to outside factors such as weather; internal attribution occurs when we assign causality to internal factors such as intelligence. We are more apt to excuse our own mistakes by "situations" beyond our control (external attribution) and blame mistakes on others because of their own ineptness (internal attribution). And no I am not making any inferences about a Hurricane and the intelligence of those trying to handle it. It’s just that attribution theory, especially fundamental attribution error theory explain a lot about the current state of blame in New Orleans which are pretty clearly split by party lines. When my ex-husband had a problem with for instance his computer it was the computer’s fault; the computer was broken; when I had a problem with my computer, it was because I had done something wrong; I broke the computer.
Combining Business With Pleasure?
Jack Bog’s Blog: Finally, some good news just about says it all, doesn’t it?
In Case of Emergency
As the finger pointing continues over Hurricane Katrina along with the cries for leadership a thought occured to me while listening to the Head of my youngest son’s school today welcome two families from New Orleans who had moved in with relatives here in St. Louis and had enrolled their children in school. The school had an emergency phone number and a plan developed after September 11th. I wondered how many parents sitting in the room knew what that number was or had it written down….on easily accessible, old fashioned paper. The school had sent it to us numerous times along with "the plan". But like the exit maps on the back of hotel doors and the location of emergency exits on airplanes, in movie theaters, or a fire escape plan from our own homes , it wasn’t top of mind enough to be of much use in case of an emergency. And the finger pointing and calls for leadership should really begin with ourselves.
Back in 1980, some of you may recall there was a fire in the MGM Grand Hotel early one morning. Eighty four people died and 675 people were injured. There were no sprinkler system in the hotel, there was complete chaos as people awoke to discover the inferno around them; they jumped to their deaths, doors locked preventing escape.
More Schools Help Katrina Refugees
I wrote an earlier post regarding the colleges and universities that were helping students displaced by Hurricane Katrina . From Hugh Hewitt’s blog, comes a link to a blog dedicated to the subject. Also, here is a link regarding which law schools are opening their doors. Mr. Hewitt notes that he is sorry that his Alma maters are not on the list, yet. Likewise!
Higher Education
The University of Missouri-St. Louis is waiving tuition and fees for students displace by Hurricane Katrina. Michelle Malkin reports that Oklahoma City University is providing free tuition to any student displace by Hurricane Katrina. Syracuse University is providing free tuition for 300 displaced students. State universities and colleges in Arkansas is offering free and discounted tuition to displaced students.
Washington University, St. Louis, my Alma mater, and one of the most heavily endowed universities in the country, is providing visits and library privileges. They announced, "Washington University will be accepting some of these students on a
visiting, non-degree-seeking basis and also will be offering library
privileges and work space to graduate students and scholars who need a
place to work. There may also be a need to coordinate efforts to find
housing for some of these students and their families."
Knock yourself out, WU. Of course, the Washington University community is doing a lot.
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