People need to believe outcomes are deserved, so they derogate victims to preserve the belief.
Lerner introduced the concept in 1965 and the Lerner and Simmons experiments followed in 1966: observers who watched someone receive random shocks and could not intervene rated the victim as less admirable. His major monograph came in 1980. Believing outcomes are deserved is cheaper than believing the world is arbitrary.
In practice
- A team learns a colleague was made redundant and finds reasons why their work was weak, none of which they held the week before.
- Neighbours discussing a burglary settle quickly on what the household had failed to do.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Theories of the mind, from the lab to the bookshop