Culpable Control

PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-03-17 Original Outcome mutability, culpable control, and blame attribution in crisis Yanwei Li, Hongbo Yu Abstract This study investigates the influence of two critical but underdeveloped factors, namely outcome mutability and culpable control, on citizens’ blame towards governments during crises. Based on a pre-registered survey experiment with 1364 Chinese citizens, our analysis shows that citizens assign more blame when they perceive the government as culpable for negative outcomes arising from crises. Additionally, outcome mutability increases citizens’ blame on the government, especially when they believe negative consequences could have been prevented. These findings demonstrate that counterfactual reasoning and causal inference influence citizens’ blame of the government, deepening our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying it in crises.