Who Is Responsible, the Incumbent or the Former President? Motivated Reasoning in Responsibility Attributions

Abstract

This article establishes that transitions of power from one presidential administration to the next can act as a source of uncertainty regarding whom citizens view as responsible for national conditions. I argue that citizens confront this ambiguity in a partisan manner when making responsibility attributions of credit and blame. Using the economy and the Iraq War as examples, ordinary partisans frequently ascribe responsibility using motivated reasoning by crediting the president of their own political party for perceived successes and blaming the president of the opposite party for perceived failures.

The Meaning and Measurement of Responsibility Attributions

“…The proposition that voters group actors together on the basis of shared partisan ties is well grounded in theories of responsible party government (Ranney, 1954; Schattschneider, 1942). 6 It is also consistent with empirical evidence showing that people often rely on motivated or partisan reasoning when making responsibility judgments (Nawara, 2015).…”

“…Recent work has contributed new insight about how the attribution process works outside of the economic domain, particularly in the area of foreign policy (Nawara, 2015; Sirin & Villalobos, 2011). Future research might fruitfully consider the utility of comparative responsibility measures in the foreign policy domain.…”

Gun Ownership and Self‐Serving Attributions for Mass Shooting Tragedies*

“…Frequently, attributions do not accurately reflect reality and in many instances are fashioned from ambiguous situations. In ambiguous circumstances, attributions are more likely to be influenced by an individual's own perspective and favor social‐psychological needs (Nawara, ). Causal attributions can in fact function to insulate or justify a favorable self‐concept or existing political disposition (Heider, ; Tetlock and Levi, ; Taber, Lodge, and Glathar, ).…”

An Outbreak of Selective Attribution: Partisanship and Blame in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Existing evidence of this pattern draws upon several distinct sources of variation (Table 2). Observationally, oppositely-signed cross-sectional relationships between evaluations and attributions of responsibility have been detected among supporters and opponents of the governing party when it comes to national economic conditions (Marsh and Tilley 2009;Nawara 2015;c.f. Rudolph 2003b), state-level fiscal conditions (Brown 2010;Rudolph 2003a), and personal experiences with the health care system (Mc-Cabe 2016).…”