Everyone is familiar with the situation when, after learning about an incident involving a victim, people often comment on what happened with the phrase “it’s his own fault.”
Scientists tried to figure out why people tend to blame victims, even without having any idea of the details of the incident, and conducted a scientific experiment to do so.
The answer to this question was found by employees of Washington University in St. Louis (USA) and the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, and the results were published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Scientists have found that by blaming the unfortunate person for what happened to him, people thereby justify their unwillingness to help the victim.
Experiment
An experiment was conducted in which volunteers were asked to donate to fictitious victims.
The conversation was about alleged victims of road accidents (I was reading the message while driving), injured tourists (predators' victims), etc.
The main assessment was made of the respondent’s ability to empathize with the heroes of fictional emergency situations.
But the study participants did not know that the stories were fictitious.
Research details
There were 6 stages in total. The average donation was 15 cents, which did not exceed ¼ of the maximum.
Analyzing the amount with the respondent's assessment of the victim's actions, the scientists found that the more shortcomings the victim had in their opinion, the less money they were willing to give him.
Conclusion
According to researchers, people become generous only towards those who are unable to reciprocate.
The finding is completely at odds with an experiment conducted in the 1960s, in which researchers found that the primary motive for helping victims was the belief that bad things only happen to bad people.
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