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On Mimicry and the Psychology of the Belief in a Just World: Imitating the Behaviors of Others Reduces the Blaming of Innocent Victims

Abstract  

Innocent victims of crime are often blamed for what happened to them. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that victim
blaming can be significantly reduced when people mimic the behavior of the victim or even a person unrelated to the crime.
Participants watched a person on a video after which we assessed the extent of their spontaneous mimicry reactions (Study
1) or participants were instructed to mimic or not to mimic the movements of this person (Study 2). Then, they were informed
about a rape and criminal assault and judged the degree to which they thought the victims were responsible for the crime.
One of the crimes happened to the same person as the person they previously did or did not mimic. The other crime happened
to a person unrelated to the mimicry situation. Results of both studies revealed that previously mimicking the victim or an
unrelated person reduced the degree to which victims were being blamed.

  • Content Type Journal Article
  • Pages 1-11
  • DOI 10.1007/s11211-012-0150-2
  • Authors
    • Mariëlle Stel, Department of Social Psychology and TIBER, Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
    • Kees van den Bos, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
    • Michèlle Bal, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
    • Journal Social Justice Research
    • Online ISSN 1573-6725
    • Print ISSN 0885-7466
Posted in: Journal Article Abstracts on 03/03/2012 | Link to this post on IFP |
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