Changing the Conversation Understanding Victim Blaming
The “I” in America
Individualistic Culture Who is at the center? Vs. Collectivist culture Seeing the context How we answer “Who am I?”
Society shapes us
Culture Pressure to conform Persuasion Prejudice Aggression Attraction, Intimacy, Helping How we perceive ourselves & others Judgments, attitudes, beliefs
Thinking Fallacies…
Misattribution Hindsight bias Counterfactual thinking
Attributions
Dispositional- e.g., lack of motivation & ability Situational- e.g., social circumstances Fundamental attribution Error What’s that got to do with victim blame?
Attribution error & Victim Blaming
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cultural Differences Changing the Conversation
Self Blame
Why Do we blame ourselves? Negative language as an unhealthy defense Comes from our desire to reestablish control over the situation Fault as a false security
“Just world” hypothesis is a “just world” fallacy Beliefs like: “Bad things usually happen to bad people. What goes around comes around.” Cultural bias Other people’s justification for what happened. Correlation does not equal causation. Fear
Self-Blame & Coping Self-blame leads to many outlets as coping mechanisms & ‘punishments’ Substance use, eating disorders, self abuse, disordered sleeping, low selfesteem, etc… Focus on getting better for your future, not fixing someone else’s past actions on you.
Language is important!
“I was raped” vs. “S/he raped me” Use active language: “A family member abused me” instead of “I was abused by a family member.” Otherwise, it changes the subject from the perpetrator to you, and takes the focus off the person causing harm (where it should be).
Now that we know….
Now that we know why we blame, and to stop blaming ourselves, we have the powerthe control! –to take that burden off of ourselves.
Changing the Conversation & the Culture
Other people are also human We are wired to connect We are relational beings Our social brain governs our mind Social relations take effort
Breathing & a Safe Space‌.