The opposite roles of injustice and cruelty in the internalization of a devaluation: The humiliation paradox revisited

Abstract

Cruelty and its link to injustice in contexts of humiliation have not received to date due attention from experimental psychosocial research. Aiming at filling this gap, this paper presents three studies with increasing degrees of experimental control (Ntotal = 1098) that show a dual opponent‐process response to being targeted by potentially humiliating actions: while targets appraising more injustice internalize less the devaluation underlying the humiliation experience (thus partially dissolving the so‐called “paradox of humiliation”, Fernández et al., 2015, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 976), targets appraising more cruelty internalize more a devalued self‐view and feel more humiliated. The fine balance between these two closely connected but distinct appraisals is key to understand the internal/subjective experience of targets: seeing themselves mainly as victims of injustice or cruelty will prevent or favour, respectively, their internalization of the devaluation and their feeling humiliated. This opposite pattern also impacts victims' reaction: Both appraisals relate to aggressive responses via anger but while appraising cruelty also paradoxically leads to powerless inertia, appraising injustice (including importantly the injustice of cruelty itself) leads to less powerlessness and more assertive agency. The theoretical and applied implications of approaching the victims of humiliation as victims of both an injustice and a cruelty are discussed.