All victims are equally innocent, but some are more innocent than others : the role of group membership on victim blaming

The present research aimed to deepen our insight into the role of group membership on victim blaming by incorporating the Belief in a Just World (BJW) theory in a system justification perspective. Study 1A (N = 220) and Study 1B (N = 127) supported the status of BJW as a system justification ideology. In particular, BJW was related to other well-known system justification ideologies (Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation), and had similar antecedents (Need for Closure) and consequences (prejudice). Study 2 (N = 134) and Study 3 (N = 247) investigated the role of victims' in- versus out-group membership on victim blaming. The results showed that, despite the potential influence of prejudice but in line with the similarity hypothesis of Lerner and Miller (1978), ingroup victims were blamed slightly more than outgroup members, based on ethnicity or sexual orientation respectively