The 2nd Rule of Evading Responsibility: Blame Others
[2nd in a series]
Kids will do most anything to avoid getting in trouble. Playing dumb is one way they attempt to do this. Another means for evading responsibility is blaming others.
Growing up an only child, I was unable to take full advantage of this technique, which works best when you have a younger sibling. Break a lamp? No problem, just blame your little brother.
This phenomenon was explored recently in the Disney movie Meet the Robinsons, which features a bad 
guy who says:
Let’s see, take responsibility for my actions or blame you…Ding ding ding! Blame you!
And we also see this all around us, from celebrities who blame their drug abuse or failed marriages on the stress of being famous (rough life), or those who blame crime on poverty.
Unlike playing dumb, which usually fails as a means for evading responsibility, blaming others is all too successful sometimes, particularly as we've become more and more a society that celebrates victimhood. In other words, while kids take the simple approach ("I didn't do it...Jimmy did!"), adults take the more sophisticated approach ("It's not my fault...society made me do it!"). But either way, it's ultimately the same phenomenon, blaming others.