Victim derogation in the Lerner paradigm: Just world or just justification?

Robert B. Cialdini; Douglas Kenrick; James H. Hoerig

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.33.6.719

Victim derogation in the Lerner paradigm: Just world or just justification?

Robert B. Cialdini, Douglas Kenrick, James H. Hoerig

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Conducted an experiment with 87 female undergraduates to test the possibility that derogation of a victim in the M. L. Lerner paradigm is mediated not by a desire to believe in a "just world" but rather by a desire to justify one's possible complicity in the production of harm. It was predicted that in a standard Lerner setting, Ss who were unambiguously informed that the data they would generate were not at the cause of the victim's suffering would show no significant victim derogation effect. This prediction was confirmed by 2 related measures of derogation. The derogation effect did appear, however, when Ss received standard Lerner-type instructions that were ambiguous regarding the instrumentality of their experimental roles to the production of the victim's pain. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	719-724
Number of pages	6
Journal	Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Volume	33
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.33.6.719
State	Published - Jan 1 1976
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

ambiguous vs unambiguous instructions concerning S's production of pain to victim, victim derogation, female college students, implications for M. L. Lerner paradigm

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Sociology and Political Science

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10.1037/0022-3514.33.6.719

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title = "Victim derogation in the Lerner paradigm: Just world or just justification?",

abstract = "Conducted an experiment with 87 female undergraduates to test the possibility that derogation of a victim in the M. L. Lerner paradigm is mediated not by a desire to believe in a {"}just world{"} but rather by a desire to justify one's possible complicity in the production of harm. It was predicted that in a standard Lerner setting, Ss who were unambiguously informed that the data they would generate were not at the cause of the victim's suffering would show no significant victim derogation effect. This prediction was confirmed by 2 related measures of derogation. The derogation effect did appear, however, when Ss received standard Lerner-type instructions that were ambiguous regarding the instrumentality of their experimental roles to the production of the victim's pain. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).",

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Victim derogation in the Lerner paradigm: Just world or just justification?

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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