When values and attributions collide: Liberals' and conservatives' values motivate attributions for alleged misdeeds

Conservatives tend to make dispositional whereas liberals make situational attributions for social problems and alleged misconduct (the ideo-attribution effect). three studies demonstrated a reversal of the ideo-attribution effect. conservatives made stronger situational attributions than liberals for the behavior of marines accused of killing iraqi civilians (studies 1 and 2) and police officers accused of wrongly killing a cougar running loose in a chicago neighborhood (study 3). reversals of the ideo-attribution effect occurred because conservative values were more consistent with excusing the marines' and police officers' behavior,whereas liberal values were more consistent with blaming the marines and police officers. these results suggest that the ideo-attribution effect-and attributions more generally-are shaped by whether people's attributional conclusions are consistent or inconsistent with their salient values. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.