Blame permeates our social lives. When done properly, blame can facilitate the upholding of moral norms. When done with excessive intensity or harshness, however, blame can have significant negative impacts. Here, we develop and validate a scale—the Blame Intensity Inventory—to measure individual differences in the propensity for intense blame responses. First, we present evidence for its convergent and divergent validity by examining relations with existing scales. In addition, in two studies, we show that the Blame Intensity Inventory—rooted in an affective conception of blame—predicts hostile responses to offenders better than do measures focused on blame-related cognitive appraisals (e.g., free will, intentionality). Finally, in three studies, we show that Blame Intensity uniquely predicts malicious satisfaction, or gratification upon learning that an offender has suffered gratuitous harm. Results are discussed in terms of important research questions that could be addressed using the Blame Intensity Inventory.

责备渗透到我们的社交生活中。如果做得好，责备可以促进道德规范的维护。然而，当过于激烈或严厉地完成时，责备可能会产生重大的负面影响。在这里，我们开发并验证了一个量表——责备强度量表——来衡量强烈责备反应倾向的个体差异。首先，我们通过检查与现有量表的关系来提供其收敛和发散有效性的证据。此外，在两项研究中，我们表明，与责备相关的认知评估（例如，自由意志、故意）相比，基于责备的情感概念的责备强度量表更能预测对犯罪者的敌意反应。最后，在三项研究中，我们表明责备强度唯一地预测恶意满意度，或得知罪犯遭受无故伤害后的满足。结果根据可以使用责任强度清单解决的重要研究问题进行讨论。