Chinese adolescents' attitudes towards collective and communicable responsibility

This research explored the attitudes of 386 Chinese adolescent students toward collective and communicable responsibility, using three scenarios involving school, society and history, with two different situations and two types of projections per scenario. The results showed that: (1) the majority of Chinese adolescents believed that collective and communicable responsibility was unjust, and this belief differed significantly with different age groups; (2) the majority expressed the view that collective and communicable responsibility could be understood and accepted; (3) their feelings toward collective and communicable responsibility were negative; (4) most showed willingness to take responsibility for misbehaviour in order to avoid collective punishment, and this willingness became stronger with increasing age; and (5) attitudes toward collective and communicable responsibility differed between two situations ('do not know the offender' and 'do not expose the offender'), between two projections (general projection and role-taking projection) and between the three scenarios of school, society and history.