It's Not My Fault: When and Why Attributions to Prejudice Protect Self-Esteem

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that awareness of the possibility of being a target of discrimination can provide individuals with a means of self-esteem protection when they are faced with negative outcomes. Men and women contemplated being rejected from a course due to sexism, personal deservingness, or an exclusively external cause. Regardless of gender, participants in the sexism condition blamed themselves less, attributed the rejection less to internal causes, and anticipated feeling less depressed than those in the personal deservingness condition. Furthermore, the more participants discounted the rejection--blamed it more on discrimination than themselves--the less depressed emotions they anticipated feeling. Discounting did not buffer participants from feeling hostility or anxiety. These findings advance our understanding of when and why attributions to prejudice protect emotional well-being.

“It Must Be Me”: Ethnic Diversity and Attributions for Peer Victimization in Middle School

“…We hypothesize that victims belonging to numerically more powerful groups will be particularly vulnerable to self-blaming attributions of the characterological type. As the number of same ethnicity peers increases in one's social milieu, it becomes less plausible to make external attributions to the prejudice of others, which can protect self-esteem and buffer mental health (e.g., Crocker and Major 1989;Major et al 2003). Hence, a victim of harassment is more likely to conclude ''it's something about me'' when her reference group is many same-ethnicity peers who are not victimized.…”

“…On the one hand, an attribution to others' prejudice may protect self-esteem (Crocker and Major 1989). Yet, an attribution to prejudice can also take its psychological toll if it leads to loss of perceived control, anxiety, and worry about what members of the majority group think (e.g., Major et al 2003;Schmitt and Branscombe 2002). In other words, there are trade-offs to external attributions for social predicaments that have implications for mental health.…”

Culpabilité chez les enfants victimes d’agression sexuelle

“…Les résultats ont démontré que le sentiment de culpabilité est associé à un plus haut niveau d'anxiété et à une plus faible estime de soi. Ce lien est également observé chez la population générale adulte (Major et al, 2003 ;Martin et Dahlen, 2005). Des recherches anté-rieures conduites auprès d'adolescents victimes d'AS avaient montré que le sentiment de culpabilité était un prédicteur de différentes difficultés associées au trauma, dont des symptômes de stress post-traumatique, dépressifs et anxieux (Cantón-Cortés et al, 2011 ;Daigneault et al, 2006 ;Feiring et Cleland, 2007).…”

“…Un sentiment de culpabilité élevé peut donc découler de cette attribution interne de blâme. Chez la population générale, il est reconnu que les attributions internes à la suite d'événements de vie adverses sont associées à davantage de détresse psychologique, notamment des symptômes anxieux (Martin et Dahlen, 2005) et une faible estime de soi (Major, Kaiser et McCoy, 2003).…”

Perceiving Discrimination in “Real Life”: Distinguishing Negative Events From Discrimination Attributions

“…Thus, the experience of discrimination would still entail an attack on their core self (Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002). This criticism was acknowledged by Major and colleagues, but they also showed that attributing a negative outcome (rejection) to discrimination was associated with less self-blame than attributing it to a personal characteristic (being stupid; Major, Kaiser, & Mccoy, 2003). The second criticism relates to the nature of the discrimination attributions in the experimental studies.…”