I feel for you, therefore, I respond on your behalf: Social psychological processes leading to and consequences of vicarious humiliation

Abstract

Vicarious humiliation as a devaluing intergroup event is a rather common experience, which has the potential to adversely influence present and future intergroup relations. Based on an extensive literature review and previous research, we hypothesised that highly identified group members experience an intensified feeling of humiliation after witnessing an ingroup member being humiliated when compared to low identifiers (Hypothesis 1), that the role of visual exposure as situational determinant of humiliating events, the appraisals, and the emotional patterns elicited, differ between personally and vicariously humiliating events (Hypotheses 2a, 2b, 3 and 4), and lastly, that vicarious humiliation regulated through emotional blends leads to behavioural intentions that influence future intergroup relations (Hypotheses 5a to 5c). Evidence for our hypotheses was exploratively and experimentally provided in six studies. Results implied that vicarious humiliation is a common experience, that visual exposure as situational determinant is more important for personally than vicariously humiliating events, and that humiliation is indeed a blended emotion (Study 1, N = 1048). Moreover, results showed that highly identified group member feel relatively stronger humiliated (Study 2, N = 175), that the appraisal and emotional patterns are related to identity processes (i.e., personal and vicarious humiliation) (Study 3, N = 74; Study 4, N = 359; Study 5 = 376), and that the feeling of humiliation and accompanying emotions regulate the relationship between vicariously humiliating events and the intentional responses such as avoidance, non-normative approach, dehumanisation and social exclusion (Study 6, N = 998). Overall, our results imply that vicarious humiliation as an emotional experience has the potential to provoke intergroup conflict.

SUMMARY The present research studied a phenomenon that we are all familiar with – being humiliated. Unfortunately, this is an experience that is rather common as we might not only experience to be humiliated personally but also to be humiliated on behalf of others. It is this vicarious experience of humiliation that the present research aimed at studying. We firstly explored people’s experiences with and understandings of humiliation through a cross-sectional survey (Study 1). Results indicated that vicarious humiliation is indeed a rather common experience, that personally and vicariously humiliating events differ in terms of the situational determinants that characterise these events, and that the feeling of humiliation is experienced as a blended emotion. We furthermore tested experimentally the effects of ingroup identification, identity processes and the presence of an audience on the appraisal processes of and the emotional and motivational responses to vicarious humiliation. We found that people who highly identified with the group they share with the humiliated person, experienced stronger feelings of humiliation (Study 2), and that being personally humiliated and being vicariously humiliated resulted in different appraisal patterns, which consequently elicited the different emotional blends of humiliation with self-focused and other-focused emotions, respectively (Studies 3 to 5). We were, however, unable to provide evidence that the presence of an audience aggravated the appraisal processes and the feeling of humiliation (which we attributed to methodological limitations of our studies). That the emotional blends of humiliation regulate the behavioural intentions, that people engage in as a result of being vicariously humiliated, was demonstrated in our last study (Study 6). More specifically, we found that humiliation accompanied by self-focused emotions was related to intentions to avoid, to non-normatively approach, and/or to socially exclude the humiliator(s) through dehumanising them. It is this latter finding that provides evidence for both the role of the social context that might determine the appropriateness of certain behaviours (e.g., social norms) and for the proposed cycle of humiliation in that humiliated persons are often believed to retaliate by humiliating the humiliator(s) in return, which has the potential to provoke intergroup conflicts.