Defensive Attribution Hypothesis

The defensive attribution hypothesis describes the tendency of an observer to assign the causes of another person's misfortune in whatever way minimizes the observer's own fear of experiencing a similar misfortune or being blamed for a similar one, typically by shifting more blame onto parties who seem less similar to the observer, and less blame onto parties who seem more similar. The psychologist Elaine Walster proposed in a 1966 study that assigning responsibility for a random misfortune helps people manage the anxiety that such an event could happen to them too, and the psychologist Kelly Shaver developed the defensive attribution concept more fully in a 1970 study, showing that greater perceived similarity between an observer and a person involved in a misfortune leads the observer to assign that person less responsibility. A 1981 meta-analysis of twenty-two studies by the psychologist Jerry Burger found consistent support for Shaver's account.