Premium
The Impact of Roles and Frames on Attributions of Responsibility: The Case of Cold War Human Radiation Experiments 1
Author(s) -
Gailey Jeannine A.,
Lee Matthew T.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2005.tb02160.x
Subject(s) - attribution , categorization , cold war , psychology , social psychology , frame (networking) , phrase , law , epistemology , political science , linguistics , computer science , politics , telecommunications , philosophy
The phrase Cold War human radiation experiments has been used by the media to categorize a broad range of research programs involving radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War era. The present study uses vignettes based on 3 widely disseminated “horror stories” used by the media to frame the radiation experiments as deviant. Both the role of the actor (autonomous or obedient) and the media frame (sensational, counter claim, or control) were manipulated in the vignettes for the purpose of testing their independent effects on attributions of responsibility. Data were collected from 337 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory sociology courses to examine whether role, frame, or both shaped respondents’ attributions of responsibility to the individual or organization involved in the experiments. Results indicate that role has a significant effect on how individuals attribute responsibility, but media frames do not.