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Early studies of Weiner’s attribution theory found that ascribing the cause of negative situations to stable factors was associated with more sympathy, less anger, and subsequently, greater willingness to help. Recent studies indicated the opposite pattern of results when the person in need was a close relational partner. The current mixed methods...
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... In line, recent studies have examined mediators in Weiner's (1985) attributionemotion-action process. For instance, Muschetto and Siegel (2022) discovered that higher perceived stability led to more anger through the helper's feelings of being negatively impacted by the help recipient's depression. This study revealed that perceived responsibility for the person in need of help moderates Weiner's model, and self-blame serves as a mediator between controllability and responsibility. ...
Seven preregistered experimental studies investigated a potential mediator (self-blame) and moderator (the perceived responsibility of the helper for the help recipient’s behavior) of Weiner’s attribution-emotion-action model. When participants considered a nonchild close other experiencing depression, higher perceived controllability was related to lower sympathy, which correlated with less willingness to provide support; however, among parents considering their child experiencing depression, perceived controllability was either positively associated with sympathy (study 1) or did not influence sympathy (study 2). Offering an explanation, studies 3a/3b indicated a significantly weaker relationship between controllability and responsibility attributions when the target of help was the participant’s child. Study 4 investigated the underlying mechanism. Parents experienced self-blame when the cause was controllable, which lowered the association between controllability and responsibility attributions. Studies 5 and 6 revealed this pattern was not specific to the parent–child relationship but occurred whenever the potential helper felt responsible for the help recipient’s behavior.
