"It’s his fault. It’s her fault. It’s their fault." "It’s not my fault. The devil made me do it." Since the first bad trip in the Eden garden, humans have made it a regular practice to pass the buck. From the man who pointed to his questionable helpmate and said, "The woman you gave me, she made me eat that fruit," to the woman who could literally say, "the devil made me do it," to Herod who could make no decision but send Jesus back to Pilate, to Pilate who thought he could absolve himself by a little handwashing, to you and to me, we have become quite accustomed to passing the buck and shifting the burden of our responsibility to someone else.

Our society has not helped us here. While our social scientists have opened doors of understanding how our environment and background shape our b…