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Responsibility Diffusion in Cooperative Collectives

Virginia Commonwealth University, jforsyth{at}vcu.edu

Linda E. Zyzniewski

Virginia Commonwealth University

Cheryl A. Giammanco

U.S. Coast Guard Academy

The authors examined questions about diffusion of responsibility in groups by asking group members to apportion responsibility for an outcome to each group member: Does responsibility diffuse more as groups increase in size but eventually level off in larger groups? Does responsibility diffuse equally, with each member getting an equal portion, or is it concentrated on certain individuals? Do group members apportion responsibility in ways that maximize their own self-esteem? Dyads attributed more responsibility to others after failure than success, but four-person groups tended to take the blame for failure. Overall, however, responsibility diffused in proportion to group size as group members concentrated more responsibility on some group members and withheld responsibility from others through specific role allocations. There was a significant degree of consensus in group members’ perceptions of individual members’ contributions to performance, but members generally felt they contributed more to the group than did other members.

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