Someone to blame: When identifying a victim decreases helping

Intimate partner violence against women and victim-blaming attitudes among Europeans

“…6 When the cause of the violence is attributed to the victims, incidents are more likely to be trivialized and seen as understandable or deserved, and hence as less unjust and more admissible. Such attitudes serve to excuse and partly absolve the perpetrators of violence 2,4,7 and add to the notion in the public's mind that sometimes women are justifiably the victims of intimate partner violence.…”

“…4,8 They will also be less likely to report known incidents of such violence, and the people surrounding the victims will not become a part of the informal social network that can help to keep intimate partner violence under control. 4,6,7 The fact that intimate partner violence against women is not only a major social and public health problem, but also a largely unreported one, 7,9 makes it even more imperative to try to change victim-blaming attitudes.…”

Effect of media presentations on willingness to commit to organ donation

“…In particular, when the needs of a single identifiable individual are presented, emotional responses immediately come into play, with higher contributions from the public as a result (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). By the same token, when needy individuals are perceived in a negative light, any identifying information about them may increase feelings of anger and blame toward them within the public, resulting in less help being offered (15,16). This effect is in line with the findings of studies on judgment and decision-making that emotions play a key part in the process of constructing values and preferences (17,18).…”

The Why and How of Defending Belief in a Just World

“…For example, people might be more willing to help an innocent victim who represents an isolated case rather than one of many such cases, perhaps because help in the latter situation is viewed as less effective at alleviating injustice (Miller, 1977; see also Kogut, 2011). Similarly, people might be more likely to help if aid is not so personally costly as to make them victims of injustice in the process (see Holmes, Miller, & Lerner, 2002).…”