Attribution of responsibility for joint work outcomes in dyads of high and low attraction in a natural setting

Twenty-eight students of a school class were put into dyads of high and low attraction. After working on a verbal task, all dyads attained a financial payoff. From studies about responsibility attribution in cooperative and competitive social contact, the hypothesis was deduced that there would be less self-attribution of responsibility for the (positive) joint outcome in dyads of high attraction. This was confirmed by the results. The potential significance for problems of distributive justice is discussed.