Risk Anal. 2014 Mar;34(3):514-28. doi: 10.1111/risa.12118. Epub 2013 Sep 19.
Accidents, one often hears, "happen"; we accept, and even expect, that they will be part of daily life. But in situations in which injury or death result, judgments of responsibility become critical. How might our perceptions of risk influence the ways in which we allocate responsibility for an accident? Drawing from attribution and risk perception theory, this study investigates how perceived controllability and desirability of risk, in addition to perceived danger and recreational risk-taking, relate to attributions of responsibility for the cause of unintentional injury in a unique setting: U.S. national parks. Three parks, Mount Rainier, Olympic, and Delaware Water Gap, provide the setting for this survey-based study, which considers how park visitors (N = 447) attribute responsibility for the cause of a hypothetical visitor accident. Results suggest that respondents tended to make more internal (i.e., related to characteristics of the victim), rather than external (i.e., related to characteristics of the park, or park management) attributions. As respondents viewed park-related risk as controllable, they were more likely to attribute the cause of the accident to the victim. Moreover, among other significant variables, having experienced a similar accident predicted lower internal causal attribution. Opportunities for future research linking risk perception and attribution variables, as well as practical implications for the management of public outdoor settings, are presented.
人们常说，事故“难免发生”；我们接受，甚至期待，事故将成为日常生活的一部分。但在导致受伤或死亡的情况下，责任的判断就变得至关重要。我们对风险的感知会如何影响我们分配事故责任的方式？本研究借鉴归因和风险感知理论，探讨了在一个独特的环境中，即美国国家公园，感知到的风险可控性和可欲性，以及感知到的危险和娱乐性冒险，如何与对非故意伤害原因的责任归因相关。这项基于调查的研究以三个公园为背景，即雷尼尔山、奥林匹克和特拉华水峡，考虑了公园游客（N=447）如何归因于一个假设的游客事故的原因。结果表明，受访者倾向于做出更多的内部归因（即与受害者特征有关），而不是外部归因（即与公园或公园管理有关）。当受访者认为与公园相关的风险是可控的时候，他们更有可能将事故的原因归咎于受害者。此外，在其他一些重要变量中，经历过类似事故的人更倾向于做出较低的内部归因。本文还提出了将风险感知和归因变量联系起来的未来研究机会，以及对公共户外环境管理的实际影响。
