Social distancing from innocent victims by spatial distality.

Abstract

Drawing on just-world theory and theories of psychological distance, we tested the idea that people respond to injustice by symbolically distancing themselves from innocent victims. Across 12 studies using varied victimization contexts and spatial arrangement methods, we examined whether perceived injustice motivates people to place victims further from the self in visual space based on perceived value or personality similarity. Participants distanced themselves from victims receiving unjust (vs. just or neutral) outcomes by placing a symbolic self-representation farther from the victims' names in 2D space (Studies 1a-1c). Study 2 found that this distancing effect was independent of victim derogation and blame, while Study 3 demonstrated that distancing was especially pronounced for traits central (vs. peripheral) to the self-concept. Studies 4a/4b revealed that distancing depends on victims' innocence and perceived injustice, ruling out a general avoidance account. Studies 5a/5b confirmed that spatial distancing corresponds to perceived dissimilarity, and Studies 6a/6b showed the reverse process: identical outcomes were judged as more unjust when they befell spatially close versus distant others. Finally, Study 7 extended these findings to self-relevant contexts, showing that participants distanced their current self from past selves who experienced unfair (vs. fair) events, over and above subjective and objective temporal distance. Taken together, these findings highlight the reciprocal relationship between experiences of injustice and symbolic social distancing, revealing how people mentally represent victims as more or less distant from the self, and contribute to the broader understanding of social and spatial representations of self-other (dis)similarity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).