Citation

Ask K, Landström S. Law Hum. Behav. 2010; 34(5): 392-401.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden, karl.ask@psy.gu.se.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1007/s10979-009-9208-6

PMID

20107882

Abstract

The mechanisms behind the 'emotional victim effect' (i.e., that the emotionality of a rape victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) are relatively unexplored. In this article, a previously neglected mechanism-observers' affective response to the victim-is proposed as an alternative to the traditional expectancy-violation account. The emotional victim effect was replicated in an experiment with a sample of police trainees (N = 189), and cognitive load was found to increase the magnitude of the effect. Importantly, both compassionate affective response and expectancy violation actively mediated the emotional victim effect when the other mechanism was controlled for. These findings extend previous research on credibility judgments by introducing a 'hot' cognitive component in the judgment process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Language: en