Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026
09:03
Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement (PMSM), for Investigating Implicit Social Bias
Published on: February 29, 2020
Victim framing shapes attitudes across diverse contexts.
Stephen J Flusberg1, Asher Donnelly1, J D Jarolimek1
1Department of Cognitive Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, United States of America.
Plos One
|June 12, 2026
Summary
Defenders may label accused individuals as the "real" victim to reduce blame. This "victim framing" tactic influences support across various scenarios, but its effect depends on whether people explicitly acknowledge the victim language.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Communication Studies
- Legal Psychology
Background:
- Accused individuals are sometimes framed as "real" victims to evoke empathy and lessen blame.
- Victim framing has been shown to increase support for men accused of sexual assault.
- The generalizability of victim framing beyond sexual assault cases is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if victim framing effects extend to diverse contexts beyond prototypical sexual assault cases.
- To examine the influence of victim framing across various accusation scenarios, including sexual assault, physical assault, and police misconduct.
- To understand the conditions under which victim framing influences public perception and support.
Main Methods:
- Conducted five experiments with 2,941 participants.
- Participants evaluated fictionalized news reports where one party was labeled the victim.
- Measured participant support for individuals involved and analyzed the influence of victim-related language.
Main Results:
- Victim framing significantly impacted support across diverse scenarios, including sexual assault, physical assault, and police shooting cases.
- Framing effects were robust only when participants explicitly cited victim language as an influence.
- Individual characteristics like gender and political ideology predicted attitudes, but framing effects persisted when controlling for these factors.
Conclusions:
- Victim framing is a powerful linguistic strategy that can influence perceptions of guilt and support across a range of contexts.
- The effectiveness of victim framing depends on whether individuals consciously process and are influenced by the "victim" label.
- Findings support a social-pragmatic view where people interpret victim labels as informative, but the weight given to this information varies.
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