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Emotional and Motivational Responses to Vicarious Group-Based Humiliation

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Vorster, A., et al. (2021). Just Hearing About It Makes Me Feel So Humiliated: Emotional and Motivational Responses to Vicarious Group-Based Humiliation. International Review of Social Psychology, 34(1): 6, 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.458 RESEARCH ARTICLE Just Hearing About It Makes Me Feel So Humiliated: Emotional and Motivational Responses to Vicarious Group-Based Humiliation Anja Vorster*, Kitty B. Dumont* and Sven Waldzus† Witnessing a fellow ingroup member being humiliated might be the most common situation in which inter- group humiliation is experienced. Humiliation on a group level is as complex as humiliation on an interper- sonal level because of shared appraisals with other emotions. We propose that witnessing a fellow ingroup member being negatively stereotyped by an outgroup member elicits anger and/or shame insofar as it is appraised as vicariously humiliating leading to anger-related approach and shame-related avoidance. Evi- dence for this proposition was experimentally assessed in three studies using two intergroup contexts: nationality (Study 1: n = 291) and gender (Study 2: n = 429 females and Study 3: n = 353 males). Across these intergroup contexts, the group-devaluing event emphasizing a negative ingroup stereotype evoked anger-related approach and shame-related avoidance indirectly through vicarious humiliation. We conclude that the accompanying emotions and thus resulting motivations determine whether vicarious humiliation results in intergroup conflict. Keywords: vicarious humiliation; anger; shame; approach; avoidance “All the cruel and brutal things, even genocide, humiliation resulting from witnessing an ingroup mem- start with the humiliation of one individual.” ber being negatively stereotyped has never been studied Kofi Annan together with both its emotional and motivational impli- cations.1 The present paper reports three scenario-based Social scientists increasingly refer to the role of humili- experiments conducted in different real-life intergroup ation in their theorizing of intergroup relations ( Elison contexts that tested both the emotional and motivational & Harter, 2007; Hartling et al., 2013; Hartling & implications of vicarious humiliation and its conditional- Luchetta, 1999; Lindner, 2002, 2006; Saurette, 2005) and ity upon the intergroup context. their analyses of real intergroup conflicts such as the gen- Humiliation refers to both an event and a feeling ocide in Rwanda (Gasanabo, 2006; Lindner, 2001a), the (Lindner, 2001b). Potentially humiliating events are situ- Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza (Ginges & Atran, 2008), ations characterized by social exclusion and rejection the Holocaust of the second world war (Lindner, 2001a), (Elison & Harter, 2007; Gilbert, 1997; Jonas et al., 2014; or the unrests in Northern Ireland (Stokes, 2006). Veldhuis et al., 2014), status loss (Hartling & Luchetta, 1999; Indeed, pe ople feel humiliated not only because of the Torres & Bergner, 2010), disrespect and degradation h umiliation experienced personally but also because (Hartling & Luchetta, 1999; Saurette, 2005), and/or being of the humiliation brought upon important ingroups placed in a powerless position (Lindner, 2002, 2006). (Jonas et al., 2014) or another person that one shares a Humiliation as a feeling is intensely negative, it is expe- group membership with (Veldhuis et al., 2014). Reading rienced as painful and undeserved (Klein, 1991), and it or h earing about or witnessing a devaluing event that seems to be long-lasting (Mann et al., 2017). It is likely to targets persons with whom one shares a group mem- be felt when individuals experience a negative discrep- bership might actually be the most common situation ancy between how they are seen by others compared in which humiliation is experienced. However, studies to how they see themselves (Miller, 1993). More specifi- on vicarious humiliation and its consequences for inter- cally, humiliation is elicited when individuals perceive group relations are rather scarce (with the exception others’ actions towards them as devaluing their selves of Veldhuis et al., 2014). To our knowledge, vicarious and as lessening their significance that they believe to have (Coleman et al., 2007; Kruglanski et al., 2014; * Department of Psychology, University of South Africa, ZA McCarley, 2009; Webber et al., 2018). Humiliation, whether † Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL)/CIS-IUL, Lisboa, PT as an event or as a feeling, is an unfortunate reality for Corresponding author: Anja Vorster ([email protected]) many individuals and groups. 2 Vorster et al: Just Hearing About It Makes Me Feel So Humiliated Humiliation is most likely to be evoked as part theory, group-based emotions are elicited by events that of emotional blends (Fernández et al., 2015; affect groups with which individuals identify, even if Leidner et al., 2012). According to appraisal theories of these events do not affect the individual directly; they are emotions (Frijda et al., 1989; Roseman, 1991; Scherer, 1984; largely independent of individual-level emotions because Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), emotional blends result from events are appraised in terms of their consequences for the fact that different emotions share core appraisals. For the ingroup rather than for the individual; and they are example, Fernández et al. (2015) showed for interper- functional in regulating group-relevant behavior (Smith sonal humiliation that accepting a devaluation does not & Mackie, 2015: 350). Moreover, group-based emotions only evoke the feeling of humiliation but also of shame can occur as emotional blends as well (Ellsworth & Smith, and embarrassment; whereas, appraising a devaluation as 1988; Frijda et al., 1989). For instance, previous research unjust elicits the emotional blend of humiliation and anger. demonstrated the simultaneous occurrences of humili- Previous research does not only acknowledge that humil- ation and anger and humiliation and shame, which the iation occurs in conjunction with the feelings of anger authors attributed to the shared appraisals of other- and shame (e.g., Fernández et al., 2015; Goldman, 2008; related outrage and injustice, and the shared appraisals Jonas et al., 2014) but also proposes that humiliation of powerlessness, respectively (Leidner et al., 2012; van simultaneously leads to both approach tendencies typi- Driel, 2011). However, the results on the different roles cally associated with anger and avoidance tendencies of anger and shame accompanying humiliation as group- typically associated with shame (Fernández et al., 2015; based emotion, as well as on the contradicting motiva- Jonas et al., 2014; Leidner et al., 2012). Approach and tional implications (i.e., approach and avoidance) for avoidance tendencies correspond with the appetitive intergroup relations, are rather ambiguous. For instance, and aversive motivational systems that represent the some studies showed that people reported a higher level core elements in the organization of behavior (Carver & of anger when humiliated on a group level compared to Harmon-Jones, 2009: 184). Approach tendencies indicate being humiliated on a personal level leading to stronger ‘the impulse to go toward’ (Harmon-Jones et al., 2013: intentions to approach (Goldman, 2008). On the other 291). In contrast, avoidance tendencies refer to inactions hand, Ginges and Atran (2008) found in the context of such as withdrawal or inertia (Ginges & Atran, 2008). intergroup conflict that humiliation can lead to a sense Because humiliation is an interaction-orientated emotion of powerlessness and thus to inertia (i.e., the tendency (Coleman et al., 2007), its motivational implications of towards inaction that suppresses aggressive responses, see approach and avoidance are other-directed, yet with differ- Veldhuis et al., 2014). ent outcomes for the relationship between the humiliated One limitation of the existing research on intergroup and the humiliator. While approach aims at correcting or humiliation is its focus on humiliating events that elicit changing the relationship with the humiliator, avoidance personally experienced group membership-based humili- aims at escaping from the interaction with the humiliator ation, as in most studies participants were asked either and, thus, temporarily from this relationship. to recall a personal situation or to put themselves in the To sum up, humiliation is a complex experience because of situation of another ingroup member where they or the its tendency to be elicited in emotional blends with other emo- other person were humiliated because of their group tions due to shared core appraisals and because it can evoke membership (Goldman, 2008; Leidner et al., 2012; van conflicting (Leidner et al., 2012) and paradoxical (Fernández Driel, 2011). The personal involvement renders these situ- et al., 2015) behavioral intentions that include the tenden- ations highly relevant for the participant and corresponds cies to retaliate and to withdraw (Elison & Harter, 2007; most probably to many real-life situations. However, the Ginges & Atran, 2008; Leidner et al., 2012; Thomaes et al., disadvantage of this approach is that intergroup humili- 2011; Torres & Bergner, 2010). It is an interaction-orientated ation cannot be empirically distinguished from personal emotion (Coleman et al., 2007a) that can occur on interper- humiliation. sonal (Fisk, 2001; Hartling & Luchetta, 1999), intragroup, Intergroup humiliation can, however, also be experi- and intergroup levels (Veldhuis
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