Observers' evaluations of the victim and the attacker in an aggressive incident.

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Abstract
Presented to 180 undergraduates slides portraying scenes in each of which a white policeman was attacking a black civilian, and the same slides with all aggressive content masked out. All Ss made evaluative ratings of the policeman and the "victim" who appeared in the final slide of the series. In each group, 1/2 the Ss gave ratings for only the E's use (no-consequence condition), and 1/2 gave ratings to be forwarded ostensibly to an investigative "commission" that might affect the fates of the depicted persons (consequence condition). For the no-consequence condition, it was predicted that Os of aggression would employ victim derogation in their evaluations. In the consequence condition, Os of aggression were expected to enhance the victim's qualities. Devaluation of the attacker was predicted for the consequence ratings. Findings support the predictions for ratings of the victim figure, particularly when Ss perceived the attack as unjustified and when the victim figure, was rated before the attacker. Findings were less consistent for the evaluations of the attacker. Implications for Lerner and Simon's "just world" hypothesis are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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