ABSTRACT
Building on the observations of Durkheim Tetlock proposed that people live in a highly interdependent world characterized by constant accountability demands: “who must answer to whom, for what, and under what ground rules”. The goals of pursuing self-interests, upholding social order, and protecting accountability procedure in the foregoing social-functionalist mindsets require motivated reasoning. In the model of intuitive scientists, people are believed to be rational decision makers. They gather information about consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus of the event. From the pattern in responses to these basic factors, causation is attributed to the person, the situation, or both. For the attempted assassination of the Chinese emperor, the penalty was death for the assailant and his entire family. In accord with the 746 bc system of yuan zuo, responsibility for a wrongdoing by an individual person within work and neighborhood settings was also extended to his boss and parents.
