Bad victims: Moral transgressions against immoral victims are judged less harshly

Four preregistered studies find that perpetrators who commit moral transgressions are judged less harshly when their transgressions impact individuals who have previously committed immoral actions (i.e., bad victims). In Studies 1 and 2, we used between- and within-participants comparisons to find that perpetrators, and the moral transgressions they committed, were judged less harshly when they affected bad (vs. neutral) victims. In Studies 3 and 4, we replicated these effects and found that bad victims were seen as having less capacity for emotional experience and suffering. Increased leniency towards perpetrators who transgressed against bad victims occurred even though perpetrators in our studies did not know who their victims were, meaning that it does not result from the perception that perpetrators were intentionally punishing bad victims. Instead, moral transgressions against bad victims may be viewed as less wrong because these transgressions are perceived to cause less harm to their victims.