Victims & Justice - Cognitive Biases

Cognitive Biases Involved in Victim Blaming

Overview

  • This video discusses three cognitive biases involved in victim blaming:
    • Actor-observer bias
    • Hindsight bias
    • Just-world bias

Hindsight Bias

  • When looking at past events, there's a tendency to believe they were more predictable than they actually were.
  • This leads to thinking that a victim should have been able to predict the offense and prevent it.
  • Consequently, people are likely to blame victims for not anticipating or preventing what occurred.

Just-World Cognitive Bias

  • The core idea is that people want to believe the world is fair. When something bad happens, there's a tendency to believe the person deserved it.
  • This belief is a defense mechanism against the worry that tragedy can strike anyone.
  • By believing the world is just, people maintain the illusion that terrible things won't happen to them.
  • Reference: Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. (1991). The person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Alternative Names
  • Just-world fallacy
  • Just-world hypothesis
  • Just-world phenomenon
Characteristics
  • Belief in a "universal" force that restores justice and moral balance.
  • Examples:
    • "You got what was coming to you."
    • "What goes around comes around."
    • "You reap what you sow."
    • "Everything happens for a reason."
  • In a just-world, actions and conditions have predictable and appropriate consequences.
Implications
  • People believe they can control what happens to them.
  • When things don’t go as planned or injustice occurs, people rationalize or explain it.
  • This can have potentially negative effects.
Maintaining Beliefs
  • To maintain the belief in a just world, people convince themselves that the victim either:
    • Behaved poorly or failed to behave adequately.
    • Had a personality aspect that led to victimization.
  • This results in blaming the victim, even in cases of self-blame.
Minimizing Vulnerability
  • By blaming victims (other than themselves), people can minimize their perceptions of personal vulnerability.
  • They may think:
    • "I don’t act like the victim did."
    • "My character or personality is different from the victim's."
    • "Nothing bad will occur if…"
Examples
  • Maybe a shooting victim was involved in gang activity.
  • Perhaps a shooting victim instigated the offender.
  • Could a burglary victim be hanging around with the wrong people?
  • Could a sexual assault survivor instigate the attack by wearing the wrong clothes?
  • Convincing oneself of these things helps to believe that these things won't happen to "me" because the world is just (fair).

Summary

  • The human tendency to blame victims partly stems from cognitive biases.
  • The video discussed:
    • Hindsight bias
    • Just-world cognitive bias
  • People unaware of the hindsight bias and with strong just-world beliefs are more likely to blame victims (including themselves).
Just-World Beliefs - Summary
  • People differ in their just-world beliefs.
  • Those with strong beliefs often feel:
    • Victims are different from non-victims.
    • Something the victim did or didn't do resulted in the victimization.
    • If the victim changes that behavior, the victimization won't reoccur.
    • If they aren't like a victim or don't act like a victim, they won't be victimized.