Everybody hurts (sometimes): The role of victim category accessibility in prosocial responses towards victimized outgroups.

ABSTRACT: Collective victimization can lead to competitiveness and reduced willingness to act on behalf of other victimized groups, but in some cases increases prosocial responses. We propose the concept of victim category accessibility (VCA) as one explanation for different reactions to victimization. Assuming that 'victims' is one among many categories into which individuals classify themselves and others, high VCA should increase the common categorization of ingroup and outgroup members as victims and increase prosocial responses towards victimized outgroups. Conversely, low VCA should increase the difficulty of identifying commonalities between ingroup and outgroup victims and reduce prosocial responses. In three studies, we develop a novel measure of VCA based on the Indirect Category Accessibi

SUBMITTER: Sharvit K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10084058 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature