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Experimental evidence of subtle victim blame in the absence of explicit blame.

ABSTRACT: We argue that people will often eschew explicit victim blame (e.g., claiming that "X is to blame") because it is counternormative and socially undesirable, yet they might still engage in subtle victim blame by attributing victims' suffering to behaviors the victims can control (i.e., "high control causes"). We found support for this argument in three online studies with US residents. In Studies 1 and 2, participants viewed a victim posing either a high threat to the need to believe in a just world, which should heighten the motivation to engage in victim blame, or a low threat. They then rated explicit blame items and attributions for the victim's suffering. Explicit blame was low overall and not influenced by victim threat. However, participants attributed the high threat victim's suffering, more than the low threat victim's suffering, to high control causes, thus showing a subtle blame effect. In Study 2, explicit blame and subtle blame were less strongly associated (in the high threat condition) for individuals high in socially desirable responding. These results are consistent with our argument that explicit and subtle blame diverge in part due to social desirability concerns. In Study 3, most participants believed others viewed the explicit blame items, but not the attribution items, as assessing blame. Thus, attributions to high control causes can be seen as "subtle" in the sense that people believe others will view such statements as reflecting constructs other than blame. Our studies suggest a way of responding to innocent victims that could be particularly relevant in a modern context, given increasing social undesirability of various negative responses to disadvantaged and victimized individuals.

SUBMITTER: Hafer CL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936882 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Experimental evidence of subtle victim blame in the absence of explicit blame.

Hafer Carolyn L CL Rubel Alicia N AN Drolet Caroline E CE

PloS one 20191230 12

We argue that people will often eschew explicit victim blame (e.g., claiming that "X is to blame") because it is counternormative and socially undesirable, yet they might still engage in subtle victim blame by attributing victims' suffering to behaviors the victims can control (i.e., "high control causes"). We found support for this argument in three online studies with US residents. In Studies 1 and 2, participants viewed a victim posing either a high threat to the need to believe in a just wor ...[more]

PMID: 31887196

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Project description:ObjectiveStudies of patient safety in health care have traditionally focused on hospital medicine. However, recent years have seen more research located in primary care settings which have different features compared to secondary care. This study set out to synthesize published qualitative research concerning patient safety in primary care in order to build a conceptual model.MethodMeta-ethnography, an interpretive synthesis method whereby third order interpretations are produced that best describe the groups of findings contained in the reports of primary studies.ResultsForty-eight studies were included as 5 discrete subsets where the findings were translated into one another: patients' perspectives of safety, staff perspectives of safety, medication safety, systems or organisational issues and the primary/secondary care interface. The studies were focused predominantly on issues seen to either improve or compromise patient safety. These issues related to the characteristics or behaviour of patients, staff or clinical systems and interactions between staff, patients and staff, or people and systems. Electronic health records, protocols and guidelines could be seen to both degrade and improve patient safety in different circumstances. A conceptual reading of the studies pointed to patient safety as a subjective feeling or judgement grounded in moral views and with potentially hidden psychological consequences affecting care processes and relationships. The main threats to safety appeared to derive from 'grand' systems issues, for example involving service accessibility, resources or working hours which may not be amenable to effective intervention by individual practices or health workers, especially in the context of a public health system.ConclusionOverall, the findings underline the human elements in patient safety primary health care. The key to patient safety lies in effective face-to-face communication between patients and health care staff or between the different staff involved in the care of an individual patient. Electronic systems can compromise safety when they override the opportunities for face-to-face communication. The circumstances under which guidelines or protocols are seen to either compromise or improve patient safety needs further investigation.

Dataset Information

Experimental evidence of subtle victim blame in the absence of explicit blame.

Publications

Experimental evidence of subtle victim blame in the absence of explicit blame.

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