What exactly are victim-sensitive persons sensitive to?

Research has repeatedly shown that people who are habitually sensitive towards unjust victimizations tend to behave uncooperatively and hostile under certain circumstances. But what exactly is the underlying motivation for such uncooperativeness? One explanation is that victim-sensitive individuals behave uncooperatively in order to retribute fateful disadvantages in the past; an alternative explanation is that victim-sensitive individuals behave uncooperatively in order to avoid being exploited in the future. Two experimental studies are presented in which participants were confronted with an unfavorable outcome that was either due to bad luck or to another person’s mean intentions. Findings from both studies suggest that victim-sensitive individuals are specifically sensitive towards mean intentions, but not to fateful disadvantages in general.

► We investigate why victim-sensitive individuals tend to behave uncooperatively in certain situations.
► Two theoretical approaches (“equity with the world” vs. “sensitivity to mean intentions” or SeMI) are contrasted.
► Two experimental studies are designed to disentangle these two approaches.
► Findings are in line with the SeMI model, but not with the “equity with the world” account.