From Psychologies · Nina Parage · · 1m 30s
Why "they had it coming" says more about you
Two well documented biases sit behind the reflex to say someone deserved their bad luck.
In brief
Two well documented biases sit behind the reflex to say someone deserved their bad luck. Saying someone deserved their misfortune is usually a way of reassuring yourself that yours can't be random. Originally reported by Psychologies.
The reflex we all know
A colleague misses a promotion, an influencer gets caught cheating, and the line comes out on its own: they had it coming. It feels less like cruelty than common sense.
“La phrase fuse, comme un automatisme : "c'est bien mérité".”
Two biases, not a personality
The habit isn't hardness of heart. It's the fundamental attribution error locking into the belief in a just world, each one propping up the other.
Blaming the person, not the situation
Lee Ross named it in 1977. Watching someone else fail, we overweight their character and underweight their circumstances, every time.
The driver running the red light
He becomes reckless or selfish on the spot. Nobody stops to think he might be racing to a hospital, and the same shortcut shapes how we read other people's breakups and money trouble.
Lerner's shock experiment
In 1966, students watched a woman take painful electric shocks for small mistakes. Told the suffering would continue and they could do nothing, they decided she was less likeable and less worthy.
“elles dévalorisaient la victime”
Comfort with a cost
If everyone gets what they deserve, then so will you, and the world stops feeling arbitrary. Run that logic often enough and it hardens into snap judgment of people who chose none of it.
“l'esprit préfère croire que chacun obtient ce qu'il mérite”
What to remember
Saying someone deserved their misfortune is usually a way of reassuring yourself that yours can't be random.
