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cognitive bias
You want to believe that bad things are deserved.
A 1966 study found that people tend to derogate victims of misfortune to preserve the belief that the world is inherently fair.
When you witness someone suffering, the discomfort of randomness drives you to seek a logical explanation. By assuming the person did something to cause their situation, you maintain a sense of control over your own safety.
You punish the victim to reassure yourself of your own security.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Melvin Lerner, 1966
- What the check found
- Lerner and Simmons (1966) is the seminal paper that established the just-world hypothesis through the shock paradigm experiment described.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.