Hierarchical position, gender, accident severity, and causal attribution

The two studies reported here confirmed the role of the attributor's hierarchical level in causal attributions about accidents in different types of organizations. In both studies, supervisors vs. subordinates had to analyze a minor work accident vs. a serious one. The first study used male vs, female subjects, whereas the second compared the target's position in the same tin-group) vs. different tout-group) hierarchical level as the attributor. In all cases, more internal attributions than external ones were given to explain the accident. These results demonstrate a tendency toward defensive attribution, whereby people tend to protect themselves or their group from blame or prejudice (Shaver, 1970a). This self-protective attribution bias was found to increase with accident severity. particularly in Study 2. The conclusion offers some suggestions for accident analysis and prevention.