A new study says that the habit of blaming someone in an organisation, even if he/she is innocent, can be as contagious as an epidemic and can spread like wildfire.

The blame game spreads quickly because it sets off the view that one's self-image is under attack and must be protected.

Nathanael J. Fast, Assistant Professor of management at the University of Southern California (USC) and Larissa Tiedens, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Stanford, found that blaming others in public noticeably increases the probability of the practice becoming viral.

"Blaming becomes common when people are worried about their safety in an organisation," Tiedens said. "There is likely to be more blaming going on when people feel their jobs are threatened."

"When we see others protecting their egos, we become defensive too," says Fast, who headed the study. "We then try to protect our own self-image by blaming others for our mistakes, which may feel good in the moment."

However, in the long run, such actions could hurt one's character and be destructive to an organisation and further to our society as a whole, he adds.

"Blame creates a culture of fear and this leads to a host of negative consequences for individuals and for groups," Fast said.

Anyone can blame, but there are some common characteristics. Usually, they are more ego-defensive and have a tendency to feel chronically insecure, says an USC release.

President Richard Nixon is one example the authors pick out in the study. Nixon had an intense need to improve and protect his self-image and, as a result, made a practice of blaming others for inadequacy.

The study will be published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.