How Victim Sensitivity leads to Uncooperative Behavior via Expectancies of Injustice

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.

Victim Sensitivity and Altruistic Behavior in School: Mediating Effects of Teacher Justice and Teacher-Student Relationship

“…Prior studies have shown that victim sensitivity can be an antecedent variable that affects altruistic behavior, and similar results have been observed in social decision-making settings (Maltese et al., 2016). The present study extended such findings to the Chinese educational context.…”

“…Such individuals are motivated to avoid being exploited and thus perform fewer altruistic, collaborative, and cooperative behaviors (Gollwitzer and Rothmund, 2009; Gollwitzer et al., 2013). This theoretical model has been demonstrated in several studies (Traut-Mattausch et al., 2011; Baumert et al., 2012; Maltese et al., 2016). For example, in a workplace environment, researchers found that victim-sensitive individuals tended to perceive more unfair treatment by their employers (Schmitt and Dörfel, 1999).…”

“…It is suggested that victim sensitivity may serve as a motivating force urging individuals to find ways to protect their own interests. Moreover, empirical studies have testified that high victim sensitivity would lead to reduce willingness to engage in solidary behaviors and increase immoral thoughts and actions (Gollwitzer and Rothmund, 2009; Maltese et al., 2016). Accordingly, it is suggested that students with high victim sensitivity are uneasy about being exploited by others and thus may perform fewer altruistic behaviors.…”

Victimization experiences and the stabilization of victim sensitivity

“…Regarding victim sensitivity, it is reasonable to assume that, when confronted with untrustworthiness cues, victim-sensitive individuals initially show avoidance-oriented reactions such as an increased attentional vigilance toward untrustworthiness. Prior research has shown that, even in the absence of an untrustworthiness prime, victim-sensitive persons show a greater attentional vigilance toward justice- and injustice-related semantic concepts ( Baumert et al, 2012 ), and more recent research shows that, in the presence of an untrustworthiness prime (i.e., a victimization experience), victim-sensitive individuals are more likely to associate ambiguous social situations with injustice ( Maltese et al, 2014 ). Especially the latter finding is in line with the notion that victim-sensitive individuals show avoidance-oriented reactions after being confronted with untrustworthiness cues.…”

Humor Affects Fairness Considerations in the Gain and Loss Contexts

“…On the one hand, the player’s emotional state may be the reason for the rejection of unfair offers in the UG. For example, using clips (Harle and Sanfey, 2007; Andrade and Ariely, 2009), emotional pictures (Moretti and Di Pellegrino, 2010), imaging (van den Bos, 2003), trait-valenced words (Maltese et al, 2016), and unpleasant smells (Bonini et al, 2011) to arouse emotion, previous studies have shown that inducing positive emotion increases the acceptance rates of unfair offers, whereas inducing negative emotion decreases the acceptance rates of unfair offers. Furthermore, correlation analysis has found that negative emotion is significantly correlated with unfairness ratings (Pillutla and Murnighan, 1996).…”