The Washington Post: "A Nod to Irresponsibility"

July 21, 2011

May 14, 2007

Accountability is in the air in Washington.

An unspoken assumption -- shared by those in government, the press and the public -- is that accountability is always a good thing. Holding people's feet to the fire, the thinking goes, improves decision making and integrity. Ultimately, accountability supposedly leads to soul-searching, introspection and better policymaking.

A growing body of psychological experiments, however, shows that this assumption is wrong.

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