Blame is Contagious, Except When People Have High Self-Worth

A pair of themes that I have returned to over and over again at Work Matters are:

1. One of the most revealing tests of a leader or organization is "what happens when people fail" (especially, creating psychologically safety rather than a climate of fear is important, as is accountability for mistakes).

2. Emotions, especially negative ones, are dangerously contagious.  Indeed, one of the main themes of The No Asshole Rule is that one of the most reliable way to turn into a jerk is to have a boss who is a jerk or to enter a swarm of of them -- it is hard to resist catching the poisoning.  

A recent study by Nathaniel Fast at USC (who got his PhD at Stanford) and Stanford Business School Professor Larissa Tiedens in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology provides compelling new evidence of the nuances of how an especially vile form of nastiness spreads -- blaming others when things go wrong.  The article is called “Blame Contagion: The Automatic Transmission of Self-Serving Attributions” and is apparently the first series of experiments that have ever examined if blaming others spreads like a contagious disease. Plus it contains a fascinating twist -- blame was highly contagious EXCEPT when the researchers first took steps to help research subjects bolster their self worth.  There is a great summary of on the USC website here.  But some key highlights are (quoted from the summary):

1. Anyone can become a blamer, Fast said, but there are some common traits. Typically, they are more ego defensive, have a higher likelihood of being narcissistic and tend to feel chronically insecure.

2. The experiments showed that individuals who watched someone blame another for mistakes went on to do the same with others.In one experiment, half of the participants were asked to read a newspaper article about a failure by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who blamed special interest groups for the controversial special election that failed in 2005, costing the state $250 million. A second group read an article in which the governor took full responsibility for the failure. Those who read about the governor blaming special interest groups were more likely to blame others for their own unrelated shortcomings, compared with those who read about Schwarzenegger shouldering the responsibility. (the emphasis in mine). 

3. Another experiment found that self-affirmation inoculated participants from blame. The tendency for blame to spread was completely eliminated in a group of participants who had the opportunity to affirm their self-worth. “By giving participants the chance to bolster their self-worth, we removed their need to self-protect though subsequent blaming,” Fast said.

This last finding is especially important and has all sorts of interesting implications for leadership, life, and  especially politics.  Apparently, pointing fingers at others is not only contagious, it is amplified by insecurity and apparently eliminated when people feel valued and esteemed.   Note this crucial to the effectiveness of a group or organization because, when something goes wrong, if the response is a "circular firing squad" as I have heard it called, then not only do people devote their energy to attacking each other, they have less energy -- and little incentive -- for working on repairing the problem.  

Also, this research perhaps helps explain the sad state of much of American politics these days. Blamestorming is a contagious disease that has spread and I am confident that among those in the political ranks (or who aspire to higher office) the incidence of insecurity and especially narcissism is very high.  As an example of someone who plays in both spheres, Carly Fiornia former HP CEO and now candidate for Senate in California was infamous for her narcissism and her penchant for blaming others, as documented in the Fortune article that finally drove he board to fire her.  Turning to her new life as a politician, if  you have not seen her Demon Sheep Attack Ad, you have missed something weird and wonderful). Although Carly does not suffer from insecurity, the narcissism findings ring true.

To return to leadership and management, the lesson from this new research, as well as many other studies of psychological safety. is that great bosses treat mistakes as an opportunity to learn, develop careers, and make the system stronger. And, yes, for accountability too.  As the USC summary of the above research indicates, there are organizations out there that are remarkably good at learning from mistakes, rather than as an opportunity for finger-pointing and humiliation of culprits:

Or managers could follow the lead of companies such as Intuit, which implemented a “When Learning Hurts” session where they celebrated and learned from mistakes, rather than pointing fingers and assigning blame. The blame contagion research provides empirical evidence that such a practice can avoid negative effects in the culture of the organization.

This is damn good advice for any boss.

 

Comments

[Chris]

Good article, I always find it interesting when joining an organization to see how long it is before someone blames someone else rather than accept responsibility themselves. It is very embedded in the culture of the organization.

[James Dodson]

Reality TV often provides excellent examples of the blame game in action. More often than not when the group or partnership fails to win or complete a task in the allotted amount of time individuals immediately start faulting others. As behavioral defense mechanisms take over arguing ensues and the group usually breaks down for a period until people come terms with the incident. Apologies are issued and usually grudges between players often carry over to the next task. I would assume people enjoy watching conflict play out and would like to believe that we all “cringe,” when we see a blamer behaving badly; but after witnessing such behavior why do we often engage in the very same behavior in our social relationships. Nobody likes failing. It’s a horrible feeling to fail. Know this; why do we often attack others when they fail.

[David Reuter]

Bob, Great post. As a student it is reassuring when the experimental data supports what we learn in class. This data reinforces the fact that corporate culture will drive behavior and if your corporate culture includes the blame game don't be surprised by the behavior that you create.

[edbatista]

Great post, Bob. Taking it in an entirely different direction, it prompted some further thoughts on academic journals and their anachronistic (but persistent!) business model: http://www.edbatista.com/2010/03/journals.html

[Anne Perschel]

Great Post. Thanks. Useful to the design of an upcoming webinar on "dealing with toxic personalities at work." Very appreciative that your post is applicable research from psychology to human dynamics in business, organizations, and politics. We need more in this arena. Leadership is all about psychology. Keep it up, please.

Anne Perschel [email protected]

[Entrep_thinking]

"Blame" in the strict psychological sense is rarely, if ever, productive. But it is so easy to fall into. ("Blame" is attributing the target as the proximate cause of a harm - I was injured & you caused it.)

Kelly Shaver did work years ago on this - even where blame is the accurate attribution, it's not healthy to ruminate on this.

The flip side is that it's healthy to attribute success to effort & unhealthy to attribute success (espec. other people's success) to luck or powerful others.

BUT... contagion can also be GOOD! Look at very recent work by Melissa Cardon on another organizational contagion... Passion! Entrepreneurial passion really can be extraordinarily contagious - but it takes the right skills, etc. (Might it even be a *key* capability for entrepreneurs?)

Bob, thanks again for the lead to JExSocPsych!
Norris

[Carol Murchie]

I just shared lunch with a longtime friend yesterday and had occasion to pull out Ben and Roz Zander's book, "The Art of Possibility" (for musicians, a mistake played is an opportunity to explore what happened and learn a lesson from it), and a 1989 email from when I worked at a certain small company was stuck among the pages. The memo was from the owner/CEO, addressed to everybody in the company, from the top executives to the shipping room, and to ask them all to take part in the 1990 budgeting process. At the conclusion of the memo it read:

"Be realistic rather than cautious. We will make a significant separate fund for the unexpected. Please enjoy the process of budgeting. Look upon it as a learning experience. Make commitments. In this company people are rarely if ever penalized for making mistakes. Not being fully engaged exact its own penalty."

It was a rarified culture for a period of time in this company; unfortunately, it deteriorated as new people from old corporate cultures of "I need to look good and the only way I can do that is to make you look bad" came aboard. Mistakes or percieved mistakes were the opportunities to blame and maim someone who threatened you.

I got the opportunity to meet Ben Zander at a party he held at his house and I told him one of my favorite quotes I'd found was from Samuel Beckett:

"No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Ben loved it.