IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/qbjsh.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Power of Conformity in Citizens’ Blame: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Sievert, Martin

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Vogel, Dominik

    (University of Hamburg)

  • Reinders, Tim
  • Ahmed, Waqar

Abstract

The authors examine whether conformity towards prevailing public opinions and pre-existing blame influences citizens’ attribution of blame for public service failure, by using a between-group experimental design with five groups. Two groups received information cues mentioning different public opinions. Two additional groups received information on pre-existing blame or the absence of such blame. One control group did not receive any information. The empirical analysis reveals that public opinion in favor of blame leads to increased blame attribution, while a contrary public opinion decreases citizens’ blame. Likewise, the expected increase in citizens’ blame resulting from pre-existing blame is supported. However, the absence of blame has no effect. Overall, the experiment supports the impact of conformity on citizens' blame. In addition, the literature on citizens’ blame is extended by utilizing a citizen-centered perspective and taking social psychological theory into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Sievert, Martin & Vogel, Dominik & Reinders, Tim & Ahmed, Waqar, 2019. "The Power of Conformity in Citizens’ Blame: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," SocArXiv qbjsh, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qbjsh
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qbjsh
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/609c2843ca8a5f000d6796de/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/qbjsh?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qbjsh. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.