ARE COMPUTERS SCAPEGOATS - ATTRIBUTIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY IN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

This study investigated how people make attributions of responsibility when interacting with computers. In particular, two questions were ad dressed: under what circumstances will users blame computers for faile d outcomes? And under what circumstances will users credit computers f or successful outcomes? The first prediction was that similarity betwe en a user's personality and a computer's personality would reduce the tendency for users to exhibit a ''self-serving bias'' in assigning res ponsibility for outcomes in human-computer interaction. The second pre diction was that greater user control would lead to more internal attr ibutions, regardless of outcome. A 2 x 2 x 2 balanced, between-subject s experiment (N = 80) was conducted. Results strongly supported the pr edictions: when the outcome was negative, participants working with a similar computer were less likely to blame the computer and more likel y to blame themselves, compared with participants working with a dissi milar computer. When the outcome was positive, participants working wi th a similar computer were more likely to credit the computer and less likely to take the credit themselves, compared with participants work ing with a dissimilar computer. In addition, when users were given mor e control over outcomes, they tended to make more internal attribution s, regardless of whether the outcome was positive or negative. (C) 199 8 Academic Press.