Perceived Patient Responsibility and Belief in a Just World Affect Helping

DePalma, Mary Turner; Madey, Scott F.; Tillman, Timothy C.; Wheeler, Jennifer

doi:10.1207/15324839951036470

Cited by 47 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Considerable work in both areas supports the idea that claimants seen as responsible for their own plight are less likely to receive assistance. [17][18][19][20][21] In helping research, this finding is generally explained with reference to Bernard Weiner's 12 attributional model of motivation. In the area of distributive justice, experience allocating scarce dialysis machines in the United Kingdom 22 and the United States 7 has shown that many members of the public believe personal morality and responsibility for illness should influence how society allocates scarce life-saving technology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Allocation of transplantable organs: Do people want to punish patients for causing their illness?

Ubel

Jepson

Baron

et al. 2001

Liver Transplantation

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Some people believe patients with alcoholic cirrhosis should not receive equal priority for scarce transplantable organs. This may reflect a belief that these patients (1) are personally responsible for causing their own illnesses, (2) have poor transplant prognoses, or (3) are unworthy because they have engaged in socially undesirable behavior. We explore the roles that social desirability and personal responsibility have in people's judgments about transplant allocation. We presented prospective jurors with 4 scenarios, asking them to distribute 100 transplantable organs among 2 groups of 100 patients each. In each scenario, 1 group of patients, but not the other, was described as having a history of unhealthy behavior (alcohol or cigarette use) associated with a poorer prognosis. In some scenarios, alcohol or cigarette use was said to cause the organ failure. In others, it only contributed to the patients' transplant prognosis. We also obtained self-reports of subjects' own smoking status. Subjects allocated significantly fewer than half the organs to those with unhealthy behaviors and worse prognoses (33%; P < .001), but the specific behavior (alcohol versus cigarette use) was not significantly associated with subjects' allocation choices. Significantly fewer organs were allocated to patients with behavior responsible for causing their diseases than to other patients (P < .0001). Subjects who never smoked discriminated the most and current smokers discriminated the least against patients with a history of unhealthy behavior (P < .0001). The public's transplantation allocation preferences are influenced by whether patients' behaviors are said to have caused their organ failure. (Liver Transpl 2001;7:600-607.)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Allocation of transplantable organs: Do people want to punish patients for causing their illness?

Ubel

Jepson

Baron

et al. 2001

Liver Transplantation

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“…Researchers have extensively examined people's varied compensatory reactions to injustice, including victim derogation and blame (Lerner & Miller, 1978), helping (DePalma, Madey, Tillman, & Wheeler, 1999;Simmons & Lerner, 1968), and retribution (Carlsmith, Darley, & Robinson, 2002;Goldberg, Lerner, & Tetlock, 1999;Miller & Vidmar, 1981). If the death of a physically attractive person does pose a threat to observers' BJW, then one should expect, along with increased perceptions of injustice, compensatory cognitive and/or behavioral reactions aimed at ameliorating the threat (Lerner, 1980).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Consequences of Victim Physical Attractiveness on Reactions to Injustice: The Role of Observers’ Belief in a Just World

2007

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Two studies explored Dion and Dion's (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 775-780, 1987) suggestion that the belief in a just world may contribute to the ''beauty is good'' stereotype. In Study 1, we found that participants rated the death of a woman as more tragic and unfair when she was physically attractive than less attractive. Participants were also more punitive towards agents of harm when the victim was physically attractive. In Study 2, we varied the extent to which a woman suffered from a house fire and asked participants to later recognize the woman's picture among several choices varying in physical attractiveness. Participants who learned that the woman suffered a great deal remembered her to be less physically attractive than when her suffering was minimal. The results are discussed in terms of how the justice motive contributes to the evaluative and moral importance attached to physical attractiveness.

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“…Yet, benevolent reactions have only received minor attention in research on just-world theory. Moreover, the studies that have been conducted focused largely on individual differences in just-world beliefs to explain differences in helping (e.g., Bègue et al, 2008;DePalma et al, 1999). Nevertheless, more recent studies have focused on a broader array of possible reactions following a BJW threat and on explaining when people choose to react in a certain way (see, e.g., Hafer & Rubel, 2015;Harvey, Callan & Matthews, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, since the introduction of just-world theory, most research has focused on the negative reactions toward innocent victims (for an overview, see Hafer & Bègue, 2005). Benevolent reactions have only received minor attention in research on just-world theory, with a few notable exceptions (see, e.g., Bègue, Charmoillaux, Cochet, Cury, & De Suremain, 2008;DePalma, Madey, Tillman, & Wheeler, 1999;Hafer & Gosse, 2010;Kogut, 2011). These studies have focused largely on individual differences in just-world beliefs to explain differences in helping and did not manipulate BJW threats nor did they focus on underlying processes that drive reactions to these threats.…”

Section: Just-world Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting the “I” and “Us” in Justice: Derogatory and Benevolent Reactions Toward Innocent Victims in Self-Focused and Other-Focused Individuals

Bal

Bos

2015

Soc Just Res

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Reactions toward innocent victims can range from harsh derogatory reactions to great effort to alleviate the victims' ill fates. Using insights from research on justworld theory and perspective taking, the current paper investigates both negative and positive reactions toward innocent victims. Specifically, we propose that self-focused versus other-focused motives can evoke derogatory versus more benevolent reactions, respectively, toward innocent victims. By manipulating self-focus versus other-focus, we indeed show in two studies that a self-focus enhanced indirect victim blaming and derogation and decreased helping of innocent victims. Furthermore, when participants were focused on another person these effects attenuated. Taken together, these findings extend previous studies on just-world theory and show that both blaming and helping can be viable strategies to deal with unjust situations.

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Perceived Patient Responsibility and Belief in a Just World Affect Helping

Cited by 47 publications

References 31 publications

Allocation of transplantable organs: Do people want to punish patients for causing their illness?

Allocation of transplantable organs: Do people want to punish patients for causing their illness?

The Consequences of Victim Physical Attractiveness on Reactions to Injustice: The Role of Observers’ Belief in a Just World

Putting the “I” and “Us” in Justice: Derogatory and Benevolent Reactions Toward Innocent Victims in Self-Focused and Other-Focused Individuals

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