Allocation of Responsibility for Injuries from a “Hidden” Hazard

Abstract

Safety researchers have investigated how people assign blame for injuries sustained during the use of or exposure to consumer products. In this study, we examine attributions made by people given product-use scenarios that describe a girl whose age is manipulated to be from 18 months to 16 years and who suffers serious brain damage after choking on marshmallows made available to her by her mother. Supplementary information intended to be either positive or detrimental to the manufacturer and its safety practices was either present or absent from the scenario. Approximately half of the participants in the positive frame condition also received sample product warnings purportedly developed and used by the manufacturer. In general, participants allocated more responsibility to the girl's parents than to the manufacturer. As predicted, allocation of blame to the girl varied directly with her age. The greater the age of the child, the greater the blame she received. Supplementary information that casts the manufacturer and the manufacturer's practices in a positive light shifted blame away from the manufacturer toward the girl and her parents. Conversely, supplementary information detrimental to the manufacturer shifted blame away from the girl and her parents and toward the manufacturer. The warnings had no measurable effect on allocation of blame. The implications of these results for consumers, legal professionals, and researchers are discussed.

Emphasizing Non-Obvious Hazards Using Multi-Frame Pictorials and Color on Allocation of Blame

“…Confirming our expectation, and consistent with past research (Kalsher et al, 1999), participants perceived low risk associated with eating marshmallows. The mean hazard rating was 1.44 (on a scale from 0 =no risk to 6 =high risk) and 75% of participants indicated that they would give marshmallows to their children to eat (65% indicated they would give them to someone else's children to eat).…”

“…Providing positive information about the manufacturer (including a warning) increased the blame placed on parents relative to others. Kalsher et al (1999) also found that blame allocations varied with the victim's age. Responsibility assigned to the victim was a positive linear function of the victim's age, whereas responsibility…”

“…Recent studies show that characteristics of the victim and circumstances of the situation shape the way in which people allocate blame for injuries. For example, the amount of blame assigned to victims has been shown to increase linearly with the victim's age (Kalsher, Wogalter, & Williams, 1999;Laughery, Lovvoll, & McQuilkin, 1996). Blame for injuries is also influenced by the attributions that one makes for the injury.…”

“…AB a result, their chances of being seriously injured increase. Typically, if individuals get injured using products with non-obvious hidden hazards, others are likely to blame them for their misfortune (Kalsher et al, 1999). However, if data regarding the hazardous nature of the product are made available to others, assignment of blame may depend on the circumstances of the situation and the manufacturer's actions and policies.…”

Evaluating Choking Child Pictorial Symbols

“…The objective of the current set of experiments was to establish a pictorial warning for the choking hazard associated with marshmallows. Previous research by Kalsher, Wogalter, and Williams (1999) indicated that people do not perceive eating marshmallows to be hazardous, despite the fact that many children either die through suffocation, or are permanently injured after choking on them, or related types offood. In Experiment 1, participants used the comprehension estimation procedure to determine the probability that each of 15 pictorial symbols would accurately depict the choking hazard.…”