ABSTRACT
The concept of responsibility, as well as related constructs such as culpability and blame, are inherently psychological. As a result, cognitive and motivational processes and biases are central rather than peripheral to understanding them (Alicke, 2000). The psychological literature on responsibility has grown rapidly during the past two decades. This, in turn has led to the development of a variety of different theories that attempt to explain how people make responsibility inferences. Although a comprehensive review of these theories is beyond the scope of this chapter, we will briefly summarize some of the major theories and identify commonalities among them where they exist.
