Negative emotions and emotion avoidance in victim derogation✰

Abstract

Many researchers have noted that emotions have not received due attention in just world theory research, despite evidence suggesting that negative emotions and emotion avoidance play an important role in victim derogation. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the role of negative emotions and emotion avoidance in victim derogation in a sample of 98 undergraduate students who watched five videos depicting real-world innocent victims. Participants’ negative emotions, emotion avoidance, and belief in a just world were measured, and they evaluated the character and social desirability of the victims (i.e., victim derogation). Women reported higher levels of negative emotions and derogated victims less than men. More importantly, controlling for gender, higher levels of negative emotions were associated with less victim derogation, but only among participants with lower levels of emotion avoidance. Results suggest that emotional empathy, defined as experiencing the same emotion as another person and vicariously experiencing their distress, may play an important role in victim derogation above and beyond the belief in a just world. Thus, it would be critical to examine emotional processes and use emotionally arousing stimuli in studies on victim derogation and just world theory.