On mimicry and the psychology of the belief in a just world: Imitating the behaviors of others reduces the blaming of innocent victims [Dataset]

Innocent victims of crime are often blamed for what happened to them. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that victim blaming can be significantly reduced when people mimic the behavior of the victim or even a person unrelated to the crime. Participants watched a person on a video after which we assessed the extent of their spontaneous mimicry reactions (Study 1) or participants were instructed to mimic or not to mimic the movements of this person (Study 2). Then, they were informed about a rape and criminal assault and judged the degree to which they thought the victims were responsible for the crime. One of the crimes happened to the same person as the person they previously did or did not mimic. The other crime happened to a person unrelated to the mimicry situation. Results of both studies revealed that previously mimicking the victim or an unrelated person reduced the degree to which victims were being blamed.

犯罪的无辜受害者往往因自身遭遇而受到指责。本文旨在验证以下假设：当人们模仿受害者本人或与犯罪无关的他人行为时，受害者指责现象可显著减少。在研究1中，参与者观看一段人物视频后，我们评估其自发模仿反应（spontaneous mimicry reactions）的程度；研究2则要求参与者模仿或不模仿视频中人物的动作。随后，参与者被告知一起强奸案和一起刑事攻击案，并对受害者在案件中的责任程度作出判断。其中一起案件的受害者是此前参与者模仿或未模仿的视频人物，另一起案件的受害者则与模仿情境无关。两项研究结果均表明，预先模仿受害者本人或无关他人的行为，可降低对受害者的指责程度。