The study aims to test the possibility of reducing victim blaming by taking a perspective of the victim. Apart from this main purpose of the study, we will further try to show that victim blaming can occur in the work context, for which we will employ various work-related scenarios. Moreover, we will explore whether “victim blaming” can occur for both positive and negative outcomes for the “victim”. That is, the scenarios will describe either situations where something good or bad happens to a person. The perception that the good or bad outcome is deserved does not by itself show the victim blaming effect (Hafer & Bègue, 2005). For that purpose, we will test whether the perception that the outcome was deserved is associated with the participants‘ belief in a just world.
The analysis will be conducted using mixed-effect regression. The answer to the question whether the good or bad outcome was deserved will serve as a dependent variable. The condition variable will serve as a predictor and it will be coded using the effect coding where the experimental condition (asked to take the perspective of the victim) will be compared to the three control conditions (one not taking perspective of anyone and two active control conditions where participants will be supposed to take a perspective of the perpetrator or an observer). We will also include the belief in a just world and valence of the scenario as predictors as well as their interaction together and with the condition variable (including the triple interaction). Random intercepts for participants and items will be included in the model.
Hafer, C. L., & Bègue, L. (2005). Experimental research on just-world theory: problems, developments, and future challenges. *Psychological Bulletin, 131*(1), 128-167.