Compassion for a Victim or Contempt for a Loser?: Relational Construals Moderate Responses to Uncontrollable Bad Acts

Abstract

People receive compassion when their negative actions are caused by uncontrollable factors. Or do they? In fact, existing literature provides evidence that uncontrollable bad acts often evoke compassion but sometimes can evoke negative responses. How is this possible? We propose that responses to uncontrollable bad acts differ as a function of the relational construal that is operative as a perceiver thinks about the act. In light of a communal relational construal, uncontrollable bad acts evoke compassion. In contrast, in light of a hierarchical relational construal, uncontrollable bad acts evoke apathetic or even derogatory responses. Three studies using both subtle and overt manipulations of relational construals supported these predictions. Results are discussed in terms of integrating cognitive approaches to relationships (attribution theory) with relational approaches (relational models theories), and the need for attribution-based relational interventions to consider relational construals.