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Degrading situations and antisocial behaviour: an experimental approach to delinquency
Author(s) -
VAN DUÜREN FR.,
DI GIACOMO J. P.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199609)26:5<763::aid-ejsp791>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - commit , psychology , juvenile delinquency , imitation , vulnerability (computing) , social psychology , antisocial personality disorder , interpretation (philosophy) , dependency (uml) , test (biology) , criminology , developmental psychology , poison control , injury prevention , computer security , medicine , systems engineering , database , computer science , engineering , programming language , paleontology , environmental health , biology
What are the social psychological processes likely to lead individuals to commit antisocial behaviour? Two experiments are presented showing that students experiencing a publicly degrading situation (a failure on a fictitious test) agreed more often than non‐degraded students to participate in a theft to the detriment of a fellow student or even to the detriment of a teacher. We were able to exclude an interpretation in terms of imitation or revenge and suggest that a publicly degrading situation places subjects in a kind of social dependency state which is expressed by a vulnerability to influence. These results are discussed with due regard to the criminological and social psychological literature.