How are perceptions of responsibility, counterfactuals, and their temporal component interconnected and dependent on political allegiance?

Ramos, Arya (2025) How are perceptions of responsibility, counterfactuals, and their temporal component interconnected and dependent on political allegiance? Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how partisanship affects the blame attribution process and counterfactual thinking for political failures. The context of the study was the multi-party political system of Poland. The sample of the study was based on adult Polish citizens (N = 230), who were recruited via Prolific. They were asked to share their political preferences and express their opinions about political failures that took place in the Polish context. The hypotheses were that voters would tend not to blame their preferred political parties for political failures, and that when asked when a mistake causing a failure occurred, they would indicate the most recent legislative period when their preferred party was not in power. Furthermore, I also hypothesized that upward counterfactuals would be generated more often, regardless of the political beliefs one holds. All of the hypotheses were confirmed. Moreover, I examined the role of identification with a party on blame attribution, but found no effect.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Epstude, K.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2025 12:04
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2025 12:04
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5800

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