Do you think Man's propensity for placing blame is instinctive?

Nah, it’s probably all your fault. ~

Probably but it’s still all your fault. :) Just glad it aint my fault.

Nah…I know enough people who rethink their opinion once hearing another’s. Those that don’t are often, but not always, ill-informed, culturally ignorant, or competitive. Then there are those that are worse, but that is another topic.

Probably not instinctive, but certainly necessary.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the defense mecharism.

@stanleybmanly Interesting point. Doesn’t the necessity stem from a desire to know the cause?It is curiosity. Surely we all have this in some form. Is curiosity the same as blame?

Hmmm—- I don’t think the cause is quite so noble nor nearly as useful as curiosity. Blame is a handy way of avoiding responsibility as well as elevating one’s status. It’s always comforting to conclude that only “others” are defective.

“Blame is a handy way of avoiding responsibility as well as elevating one’s status.” That is a questionable statement. As someone who has been blamed for the results of several incidents, it is rare that I ever thought that the person(s) making the accusation were attempting to do this.

“It’s always comforting to conclude that only “others” are defective.” This statement also doesn’t sit well with me. When there is a suspicion or proof that another is at fault, it doesn’t provide personal comfort. Even if the initial blame was put on me and later proven wrong, it doesn’t always bring comfort, if ever. More often than not, it morphs into self-doubt in the role that I may have unwittingly played in the incident.

I think that avoidance of pain is instinctual. When the potential for punishment (emotional, physical or both) exists, young children will usually attempt to deflect blame.

@Pied Pfeffer.Assigning blame isn’t bad. Calling a spade a spade is useful and necessary. Misplacing blame or deflecting blame toward another in an effort to avoid responsibility is another matter. I didn’t give this answer with your personal situation in mind. I took the question as asking for explanations of human behavior in the aggregate. Certainly my answer is cynical. It just seems to me that in the normal state of affairs, “I didn’t do it”, “don’t blame me” is far too common. In fact we have a legal system based on finding and assigning fault. If “I didn’t do it” pops up when it is obvious that “somebody” did it, nature has granted human beings the “ethical flexibility to prefer another’s neck in the noose as opposed to one’s own.

I believe blaming others is a concept we are taught from a young age. Most children live in a world where a multitude of behaviours get punished. They learn to say “Wasn’t me” and “He started it” because those excuses work.

I may be a dreamer, but I believe accepting responsibilty is something we are all able to do. We teach kids to be dishonest, forcing them to live in a courtroom, basically. All their actions and thoughts are evaluated and “dealt with”. Lying is their only way out of there.

It might be useful to distinguish between figuring out “who done it” vs making someone feel bad or ostracizing them for doing something.
In the first case determining who did what might be part of avoiding an undesirable event in the future.
The second is part of some pack hierarchy behavior I think…often not useful.