Who Is to Blame When Spreading Behavior Cascades Into Harm? Blame Attribution Traces the Causal Chain of Actions

= 1,777) show that people trace causal origin in action sequences to the second degree of separation and regard this causal inference as the basis of blame attribution. People also take into account the multiplying effect of junctions in action sequences and attribute more blame to initiators of causal chains when the cascading effects lead to more severe consequences. The findings support the social functionalist approach to naïve blame attribution in human causal chains.