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Victim Precipitation and the Wage Gap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Shannon Cheng
Affiliation:
Rice University
Abigail Corrington
Affiliation:
Rice University
Mikki Hebl*
Affiliation:
Rice University
Linnea Ng
Affiliation:
Rice University
Ivy Watson
Affiliation:
Rice University
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mikki Hebl, Department of Psychology, Rice University, MS-25, Houston, TX 77005. E-mail: hebl@rice.edu

Extract

Cortina, Rabelo, and Holland (2018) accurately cite the general public's overuse of victim precipitation ideologies, or the notion that victims engage in actions that directly bring about their unfortunate circumstances. These ideologies also have permeated industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology and the study of people in the workplace (e.g., women's choice in clothing leads to sexual harassment, certain target characteristics and actions incite workplace bullying). We agree with Cortina et al. that this ideology unintentionally benefits the perpetrator by placing blame and responsibility for nonoptimal workplace situations directly on the target. The field of I-O psychology needs to move away from this model of victim blaming as a remediation for workplace disparities.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2018 

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Footnotes

All authors contributed to this manuscript equally and author order was determined alphabetically.

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