On People’s Worries about Becoming a Victim of Events or Conditions Often Blamed on Those up There

Abstract

The authors study people’s worries about becoming victimized by events and conditions often blamed on “those up there”. Excessive worries are bad for people’s performance because they lead to risk avoidance and lower self-confidence. In two representative surveys conducted in Germany, it is found that victimization concerns are positively correlated with people’s gender, previous victimization, their estimated likelihood of being victimized, their fear of crime, their crime-avoidance behavior, their striving for tradition and security, and their negative attitudes toward crimes. Negative correlations are found for people’s education, their striving for universalism, and their social capital. When considering all predictors combined, people’s expected likelihood to become victimized is found to be the optimal predictor of victimization concerns. It is recommended that management concentrates on setting realistic levels of such risk estimates to avoid negative effects on people’s performance.