Role of just-world beliefs, victim identifiability, and the salience of an alternative target for victim blaming
Date
2025
Authors
Twardawski, M.
Fischer, M.
Agostini, P.
Schwabe, J.
Gollwitzer, M.
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Journal article
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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2025; 119(104721):1-10
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Abstract
Victim blaming-the tendency to attribute responsibility and blame to innocent victims-is associated with people's belief that the world is a just place where everybody gets what they deserve and deserves what they get. In the present research, we examine the extent to which the relationship between just-world beliefs and victim blaming depends on (a) whether or not the victim is identifiable and (b) whether or not another involved person is salient (e.g., an offender). Results from a pre-registered pilot experiment (Study 1; N = 363) suggest that, in the absence of a salient offender, identifying information about the victim (vs. no information) increased the relationship between just-world beliefs and victim blaming. In contrast, when there was a salient offender, identifying information about the victim (vs. no information) decreased this relationship. We attempted to replicate these findings in a pre-registered experiment (Study 2; N = 1143), implementing several changes to the design to address some limitations of Study 1. Here, we only found main effects of just-world beliefs and the salience of a second person, but none of the hypothesized interaction effects. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.
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Data source: Supplementary data, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104721
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Copyright 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. (This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.)