ABSTRACT
This chapter responds to an influential model of blaming cognition developed by Malle et al., which is called the Path model. This model sees blame as the result of information processing over relevant concepts along a standard sequence of paths. I argue that the Path model fails to chart the role of affect and implicit biases in blaming cognition, and, relatedly, its sequences are based on artificial conditions, in which implicit cognition is omitted. Once we insert ordinary implicit inputs into the Path model, we generate deviant pathways that undermine the model’s predictive validity.
