How Victim Sensitivity leads to Uncooperative Behavior via Expectancies of Injustice.

Simona Maltese,Colin Macleod,Anna Baumert,Manfred J Schmitt

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02059

Simona Maltese, Colin Macleod + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02059

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Abstract

According to the Sensitivity-to-mean-intentions model, dispositional victim sensitivity involves a suspicious mindset that is activated by situational cues and guides subsequent information processing and behavior like a schema. Study 1 tested whether victim-sensitive persons are more prone to form expectancies of injustice in ambiguous situations and whether these expectancies mediate the relationship between victim sensitivity and cooperation behavior in a trust game. Results show an indirect effect of victim sensitivity on cooperation after unfair treatment (vs. control condition), mediated by expectancies of injustice. In Study 2 we directly manipulated the tendency to form expectancies of injustice in ambiguous situations to test for causality. Results confirmed that the readiness to expect unjust outcomes led to lower cooperation, compared to a control condition. These findings provide direct evidence that expectancy tendencies are implicated in elevated victim sensitivity and are of theoretical and practical relevance.

Highlights

People differ systematically in their perceptions of as well as their emotional and behavioral reactions to injustice (Schmitt, 1996)
We aimed to directly manipulate the mediator variable of Study 1 by means of a training procedure designed to induce differential expectancies concerning unjust vs. just outcomes, and we tested the effect of this manipulation on behavioral cooperation in the trust game
In two studies we provided evidence for hypotheses derived from the SeMI model that describes the underlying processes translating dispositional victim sensitivity into reduced cooperation behavior

Summary

Introduction

People differ systematically in their perceptions of as well as their emotional and behavioral reactions to injustice (Schmitt, 1996). Social justice research has provided intriguing evidence that individual differences in dispositional justice sensitivity (JS) are associated with reactions to injustice (Schmitt et al, 2005, 2010). JS has been found to shape anger, protest, and retaliation in reaction to own disadvantages (Schmitt and Dörfel, 1999). One important dimension of JS is the intolerance of unfair treatment directed toward the self, namely victim sensitivity. High victim sensitivity was found to be associated with reduced willingness to cooperate (Gollwitzer et al, 2009). Highly victim-sensitive persons were found to refrain from displaying solidarity with disadvantaged others (Gollwitzer et al, 2005)

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