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Psychology
intermediate

Observer's reaction to the "innocent victim": Compassion or rejection?

Melvin J. Lerner & Carolyn H. Simmons (1966)

Published
Jan 1, 1966
Journal
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · Vol. 4 · No. 2
DOI
10.1037/h0023562
View Original

At a GlanceAI

Classic study linking just-world belief to observers’ compassion vs rejection of an innocent victim.

SummaryAI

This seminal article examines why people sometimes respond negatively to innocent victims instead of feeling compassion. In the context of just-world thinking, it highlights a psychological route by which observers may protect the belief that the world is fair, potentially by derogating or rejecting the victim. The work helped establish victim blaming as a motivated response with broad implications for moral judgment, helping behavior, and reactions to suffering.

Method SnapshotAI

Laboratory social-psychology experiments assessing observers’ reactions to an innocent victim under controlled conditions.

BackgroundAI

Basic social psychology of attribution, moral judgment, and the belief in a just world framework.

In Collections

Psychology41 papers

The Belief in a Just World

In this collection I gather (mostly) psychological studies devoted to people’s fundamental belief that the world is just. This construct, it seems to me, quite strongly affects our perception of the world and, importantly, our reaction to ongoing events — especially when we start blaming others, guided implicitly by precisely this motive. The collection includes both curated works, which at some point I read carefully and can say something sensible about, and new works being published on the topic.

ES
Evgeny Smirnov