Cruelty and its link to injustice in contexts of humiliation have not received to date due attention from experimental psychosocial research. Aiming at filling this gap, this paper presents three studies with increasing degrees of experimental control (Ntotal = 1098) that show a dual opponent‐process response to being targeted by potentially humiliating actions: while targets appraising more injustice internalize less the devaluation underlying the humiliation experience (thus partially dissolving the so‐called “paradox of humiliation”, Fernández et al., 2015, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 976), targets appraising more cruelty internalize more a devalued self‐view and feel more humiliated. The fine balance between these two closely connected but distinct appraisals is key to understand the internal/subjective experience of targets: seeing themselves mainly as victims of injustice or cruelty will prevent or favour, respectively, their internalization of the devaluation and their feeling humiliated. This opposite pattern also impacts victims' reaction: Both appraisals relate to aggressive responses via anger but while appraising cruelty also paradoxically leads to powerless inertia, appraising injustice (including importantly the injustice of cruelty itself) leads to less powerlessness and more assertive agency. The theoretical and applied implications of approaching the victims of humiliation as victims of both an injustice and a cruelty are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

不公正和残忍在贬值内化中的对立作用：重新审视羞辱悖论


迄今为止，残忍及其与羞辱背景下的不公正的联系尚未得到实验性社会心理研究的应有关注。为了填补这一空白，本文提出了三项实验控制程度越来越高的研究 （Ntotal = 1098），它们显示了对成为潜在羞辱行为目标的双重对手过程反应：虽然评估更多不公正的目标内化了较少的羞辱体验背后的贬值（从而部分溶解了所谓的“羞辱悖论”，Fernández 等人， 2015 年，人格与社会心理学公报，41,976），评价更残忍的目标更多地内化了被贬低的自我观点，并感到更加羞辱。这两种密切相关但截然不同的评估之间的微妙平衡是理解目标内部/主观体验的关键：将自己主要视为不公正或残忍的受害者，将分别阻止或有利于他们对贬值的内化和羞辱感。这种相反的模式也会影响受害者的反应：这两种评价都与通过愤怒做出的攻击性反应有关，但虽然评价残忍也自相矛盾地导致了无能为力的惰性，而评价不公正（重要的是，包括残忍本身的不公正）会导致更少的无力感和更自信的能动性。讨论了将羞辱受害者视为不公正和残忍的受害者的理论和应用含义。