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Previous research has demonstrated that East Asians make broader causal attributions for behaviors than Westerners. In the current research, it was hypothesized that East Asians would also take responsibility for a broader distribution of consequences of events. This hypothesis was supported in 4 studies. In a content analysis investigating both Japanese and American newspaper articles (Study 1), evidence suggested that Japanese journalists focus more on responsibility for the distal consequences of certain events compared to American journalists. Furthermore, in three cross-cultural experiments involving hypothetical scenarios (Studies 2-4), Japanese participants held themselves responsible to a larger number of people than Americans, and perceived themselves as more responsible for distal consequences, whereas Americans perceived themselves as more responsible for proximal consequences. Study 4 demonstrated that individual differences in holistic thinking were related to the ripple effect, but did not necessarily mediate the cultural difference. Overall the results support the hypothesis that Japanese hold themselves responsible fo