title: How Victim Sensitivity leads to Uncooperative Behavior via Expectancies of Injustice.
abstract: According to the Sensitivity-to-mean-intentions model, dispositional victim sensitivity involves a suspicious mindset that is activated by situational cues and guides subsequent information processing and behavior like a schema. Study 1 tested whether victim-sensitive persons are more prone to form expectancies of injustice in ambiguous situations and whether these expectancies mediate the relationship between victim sensitivity and cooperation behavior in a trust game. Results show an indirect effect of victim sensitivity on cooperation after unfair treatment (vs. control condition), mediated by expectancies of injustice. In Study 2 we directly manipulated the tendency to form expectancies of injustice in ambiguous situations to test for causality. Results confirmed that the readiness to expect unjust outcomes led to lower cooperation, compared to a control condition. These findings provide direct evidence that expectancy tendencies are implicated in elevated victim sensitivity and are of theoretical and practical relevance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau Landau, Germany.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maltese
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-LandauLandau, Germany; School of Psychology, University of Western AustraliaPerth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baumert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau Landau, Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Western Australia Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: MacLeod
keywords: cooperation; expectancy tendencies; information processing; justice sensitivity; trust