2010/01/26 by Karl Ask, Sara Landström · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Deception detection and forensic psychology #Emotions and Moral Behavior #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · doi:10.1007/s10979-009-9208-6
openalex publication_date 2010/01/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The mechanisms behind the 'emotional victim effect' (i.e., that the emotionality of a rape victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) are relatively unexplored. In this article, a previously neglected mechanism--observers' affective response to the victim--is proposed as an alternative to the traditional expectancy-violation account. The emotional victim effect was replicated in an experiment with a sample of police trainees (N = 189), and cognitive load was found to increase the magnitude of the effect. Importantly, both compassionate affective response and expectancy violation actively mediated the emotional victim effect when the other mechanism was controlled for. These findings extend previous research on credibility judgments by introducing a 'hot' cognitive component in the judgment process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.