Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

464 CHAPTER 11 Social Psychologyblaming the victimThe tendency to blame an innocent victimof misfortune for having somehow causedthe problem or for not having taken stepsto avoid or prevent it.hindsight biasThe tendency to overestimate one’s abilityto have foreseen or predicted the outcomeof an event.just-world hypothesisThe assumption that the world is fair andthat therefore people get what they deserveand deserve what they get.self-serving biasThe tendency to attribute successful outcomesof one’s own behavior to internalcauses and unsuccessful outcomes to external,situational causes.Blaming the Victim Fifteen-year-old ShawnHornbeck is shown at a press conference,shortly after being reunited with his family.Four years earlier, Shawn had beenkidnapped and held captive. When theFBI suspected Shawn’s kidnapper in theabduction of another boy, both boys wererescued. As details of Shawn’s captivitybecame public, many people asked whyShawn hadn’t tried to escape or call thepolice while his kidnapper was at work.As it turned out, the kidnapper had abusedand terrorized Shawn for months. At onepoint, he tried to strangle Shawn. WhenShawn pleaded for his life, the kidnappermade the boy promise that he wouldnever try to escape. “There wasn’t a daywhen I didn’t think that he’d just kill me,”Shawn later recalled. Why do peopleoften “blame the victim” after crimes,accidents, or other tragedies?Notice, however, that when it comes to explaining our own behavior, we tend tobe biased in the opposite direction. Rather than internal, personal attributions,we’re more likely to explain our own behavior using external, situational attributions.He dropped the file cabinet because he’s a dimwit; you dropped the file cabinetbecause there wasn’t a good way to get a solid grip on it. Some jerk pulled outin front of your car because she’s a reckless, inconsiderate moron; you pulled out infront of her car because an overgrown hedge blocked your view. And so on.Why the discrepancy in accounting for the behavior of others as compared to ourown behavior? Part of the explanation is that we simply have more informationabout the potential causes of our own behavior than we do about the causes of otherpeople’s behavior. When you observe another driver turn directly into the path ofyour car, that’s typically the only information you have on which to judge his or herbehavior. But when you inadvertently pull in front of another car, you perceive yourown behavior in the context of the various situational factors that influenced youraction. You’re aware of such factors as visual obstacles, road conditions, driving distractions,and so forth. You also know what motivated your behavior and how differentlyyou have behaved in similar situations in the past. Thus, you’re much moreaware of the extent to which your behavior has been influenced by situational factors(Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Jones, 1990).The fundamental attribution error plays a role in a common explanatory patterncalled blaming the victim. The innocent victim of a crime, disaster, or serious illnessis blamed for having somehow caused the misfortune or for not having takensteps to prevent it. For example, many people blame the poor for their dire straits,the sick for bringing on their illnesses, and battered women and rape survivors forsomehow “provoking” their attackers.The blame the victim explanatory pattern is reinforced by another commoncognitive bias. Hindsight bias is the tendency, after an event has occurred, to overestimateone’s ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome. In everyday conversations,this is the person who confidently proclaims after the event, “I couldhave told you that would happen” or “I can’t believe they couldn’t see thatcoming.” In the case of blaming the victim, hindsight bias makes it seem as if thevictim should have been able to predict—and prevent—what happened (Goldinger& others, 2003).Why do people often resort to blaming the victim? People have a strong need tobelieve that the world is fair—that “we get what we deserve and deserve whatwe get.” Social psychologist Melvin Lerner (1980) calls this the just-worldhypothesis. Blaming the victim reflects the belief that, because the world is just, thevictim must have done something to deserve his or her fate. Collectively, these cognitivebiases and explanatory patterns help psychologically insulate us from theuncomfortable thought “It could have just as easily been me” (Alves & Correia,2008; Ijzerman & Van Prooijen, 2008).