Psychological distancing: the effects of narrative perspectives and levels of access to a victim's inner world on victim blame and helping intention

Abstract

To explore what is an (in)effective way to tell victim stories in order to elicit support for charitable causes, an experiment was conducted to examine how narrative perspectives (first‐person versus third‐person) and levels of access to a victim's inner world (high versus low) may influence reactions to the victim. It found that the two factors interacted to influence victim blame and helping intention through affecting the perceived psychological distance of the victim. Specifically, the first‐person (versus third‐person) narrative increased victim blame and reduced helping intention by motivating participants to distance themselves from the victim when the level of access to the victim's inner world was relatively high but not when the level of access was relatively low. The findings contribute to our understanding of what would be an (in)effective way of telling victim stories to elicit compassionate reactions to those in need. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.