In this paper, we assess the characteristics decision support tools should have in order to support “responsible decision‐making”. To this end, we first describe responsible decision‐making. We argue that responsibility relates to both the outcome and the process of decision‐making. On the basis of this description, we discuss which conditions should be in place so as to increase the possibility of responsible decision‐making. Next, we discuss the characteristics of tools supporting responsible decision‐making in terms of their ability to support the realization of the required conditions for responsible decision‐making. We use these characteristics to identify three types of tools: “responsible”, “neutral”, and “irresponsible” tools. We illustrate the assessment of the responsibility of support tools by looking at group model building. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.