Abstract
In modern societies, when corporate actors take "actions" in behalf of their organizations, how and against whom the responsibility should be overtaken has become important and yet difficult problem to judge. This paper is the report of the crosscultural surveyes by use of random samples of adults.
The primary component of each survey is a set of short vignettes describing acts of wrongdoing by individuals inside corporate hierarchies. Each vignette contains a set of experimental manipulations (2x2x3).
Each of these stories manipulated three variables: the mental state of the principle actor in the vignette (committing accidental vs. negligent wrongdoing); the actor's position within the hierarchy (subordinate vs. mid-level authority), and the others' influence in committing the act (acting alone, acting under orders, or acting in collectively with others in the organization).
