Social Distancing from Innocent Victims by Spatial Distality

Across several victimization contexts and spatial arrangement methods, nine studies provide triangulating evidence that perceived injustice influences the social distancing of the self from innocent victims by spatial distality. Participants distanced themselves from victims receiving unjust (vs. just) outcomes by placing a symbolic representation of the self further from the victims' names in 2D space (Studies 1a/b). Study 2 replicated this effect using a different spatial arrangement task. Representations of victims’ traits were positioned further from a self-representation when the victims received unjust (vs. just) outcomes, and this distancing effect was stronger for traits participants rated as central to their self-conception. Studies 3a/b provided evidence for the role of perceived injustice in these effects. Participants distanced themselves from innocent (vs. less innocent) victims of unfavourable outcomes (Study 3a). Study 3b confirmed that perceived injustice was greater for unjust (vs. just) outcomes involving innocent victims, and this perception predicted spatial distancing at the level of scenarios only when the victims were innocent. Crucially, Studies 4a/b validated the assumption that spatial distance equates to social distance by finding that participants perceived greater similarity to others whose traits or initials were spatially arranged closer to the self. Finally, Studies 5a/b provide evidence that an event involving two victims was perceived as more unjust for the victim arranged spatially closer to the self. These findings highlight the impact of perceived injustice on distancing from innocent victims (and vice versa) and contribute to the broader understanding of social and spatial representations of self-other (dis)similarity.