According to the results of a study by international scientists, being treated disrespectfully can lead to the development of a cynical view of humanity. A cynical view of humanity, in turn, contributes to people experiencing further disrespectful treatment by others and also to themselves behaving disrespectfully towards others. Through elaborate cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental studies, the social psychologist Dr. Daniel Ehlebracht (Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS)) as well as Dr. Olga Stavrova from the Tilburg University (NL) and Dr. Kathleen D. Vohs from the University of Minnesota (US) proved that experienced disrespect and cynicism form a vicious circle. The joint publication is now available online in a preliminary version and will soon appear in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
The researchers used different methods for their investigations: The causal effect of experienced disrespect on cynicism as well as in the opposite case, i.e. from cynicism to experienced disrespect, could be proven in a total of five experimental studies with 1,149 participants and one diary study with 462 participants. A cross-sectional analysis of data from the European Social Survey (ESS) with representative population samples of European countries (a total of 53,333 people interviewed) showed a clear connection between experienced disrespect and cynicism in 28 of 29 countries. A longitudinal analysis of data from the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) with a total of 19,922 respondents showed that, on the one hand, disrespect experienced predicted the development of cynicism over a period of four years and, on the other hand, a cynical view of humanity also made the future experience of disrespect more likely.
Daniel Ehlebracht says: "When people are treated disrespectfully by others, they often tend to generalize their negative experiences and unjustifiably consider other people to be immoral, unfair and selfish in general. However, such a distorted image of humanity can paradoxically lead to provoking renewed bad experiences with fellow human beings and also to a tendency to treat others badly oneself".
According to Ehlebracht, the scientists' new findings can thus also contribute to understanding why cynicism and disrespect for fellow human beings are on the rise in many societies.
The Vicious Circle of Cynicism
