Rael J Dawtry
Biographic Data
| ID | 5448348 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rael J Dawtry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rael J |
| FAMILY NAME | Dawtry |
| SIGNATURE | DAWTRY R J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3053-8878 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Is It Fair to Kill One to Save Five? How Just World Beliefs Shape Sacrificial Moral Decision-making
Sacrificing a target to save a group violates deontological ethics against harm but upholds utilitarian ethics to maximize outcomes. Although theorists examine many factors that influence dilemma decisions, we examined justice concerns: We manipulated the moral character of sacrificial targets, then measured participants’ dilemma responses and just world beliefs. Across four studies ( N =1116), participants considering guilty versus innocent targ…
Social distancing from innocent victims by spatial distality
Drawing on just-world theory and theories of psychological distance, we tested the idea that people respond to injustice by symbolically distancing themselves from innocent victims. Across 12 studies using varied victimization contexts and spatial arrangement methods, we examined whether perceived injustice motivates people to place victims further from the self in visual space based on perceived value or personality similarity. Participants dist…
Opposing Misperceptions of Wealth
Although perceptions of wealth are shaped by people’s social environment and ideological beliefs, few studies integrate these two perspectives. We address this oversight by examining the association between participants’ actual and estimated average neighborhood household income and whether political orientation moderates this relationship. Using a large, nationwide random sample of New Zealand adults ( N = 14,853), our results reveal that both l…
Hazardous machinery
Autonomous robots increasingly perform functions that are potentially hazardous and could cause injury to people (e.g., autonomous driving). When this happens, questions will arise regarding responsibility, although autonomy complicates this issue – insofar as robots seem to control their own behaviour, where would blame be assigned? Across three experiments, we examined whether robots involved in harm are assigned agency and, consequently, blame…
Why Wealthier People Think People Are Wealthier, and Why It Matters
The present studies provide evidence that social-sampling processes lead wealthier people to oppose redistribution policies. In samples of American Internet users, wealthier participants reported higher levels of wealth in their social circles (Studies 1a and 1b). This was associated, in turn, with estimates of higher mean wealth in the wider U.S. population, greater perceived fairness of the economic status quo, and opposition to redistribution …
Someone is pulling the strings
We hypothesised that belief in conspiracy theories would be predicted by the general tendency to attribute agency and intentionality where it is unlikely to exist. We further hypothesised that this tendency would explain the relationship between education level and belief in conspiracy theories, where lower levels of education have been found to be associated with higher conspiracy belief. In Study 1 (N = 202) participants were more likely to agr…
Making sense of misfortune
Drawing on theorizing and research suggesting that people are motivated to view their world as an orderly and predictable place in which people get what they deserve, the authors proposed that (a) random and uncontrollable bad outcomes will lower self-esteem and (b) this, in turn, will lead to the adoption of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. Four experiments demonstrated that participants who experienced or recalled bad (vs. good) breaks dev…
Justice motive effects in ageism
Justice motive effects in ageism
Making sense of misfortune
Drawing on theorizing and research suggesting that people are motivated to view their world as an orderly and predictable place in which people get what they deserve, the authors proposed that (a) random and uncontrollable bad outcomes will lower self-esteem and (b) this, in turn, will lead to the adoption of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. Four experiments demonstrated that participants who experienced or recalled bad (vs. good) breaks dev…
Justice motive effects in ageism
Making sense of misfortune
Drawing on theorizing and research suggesting that people are motivated to view their world as an orderly and predictable place in which people get what they deserve, the authors proposed that (a) random and uncontrollable bad outcomes will lower self-esteem and (b) this, in turn, will lead to the adoption of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. Four experiments demonstrated that participants who experienced or recalled bad (vs. good) breaks dev…
Why Wealthier People Think People Are Wealthier, and Why It Matters
The present studies provide evidence that social-sampling processes lead wealthier people to oppose redistribution policies. In samples of American Internet users, wealthier participants reported higher levels of wealth in their social circles (Studies 1a and 1b). This was associated, in turn, with estimates of higher mean wealth in the wider U.S. population, greater perceived fairness of the economic status quo, and opposition to redistribution …
Someone is pulling the strings
We hypothesised that belief in conspiracy theories would be predicted by the general tendency to attribute agency and intentionality where it is unlikely to exist. We further hypothesised that this tendency would explain the relationship between education level and belief in conspiracy theories, where lower levels of education have been found to be associated with higher conspiracy belief. In Study 1 (N = 202) participants were more likely to agr…
Hazardous machinery
Autonomous robots increasingly perform functions that are potentially hazardous and could cause injury to people (e.g., autonomous driving). When this happens, questions will arise regarding responsibility, although autonomy complicates this issue – insofar as robots seem to control their own behaviour, where would blame be assigned? Across three experiments, we examined whether robots involved in harm are assigned agency and, consequently, blame…
Opposing Misperceptions of Wealth
Although perceptions of wealth are shaped by people’s social environment and ideological beliefs, few studies integrate these two perspectives. We address this oversight by examining the association between participants’ actual and estimated average neighborhood household income and whether political orientation moderates this relationship. Using a large, nationwide random sample of New Zealand adults ( N = 14,853), our results reveal that both l…
Is It Fair to Kill One to Save Five? How Just World Beliefs Shape Sacrificial Moral Decision-making
Sacrificing a target to save a group violates deontological ethics against harm but upholds utilitarian ethics to maximize outcomes. Although theorists examine many factors that influence dilemma decisions, we examined justice concerns: We manipulated the moral character of sacrificial targets, then measured participants’ dilemma responses and just world beliefs. Across four studies ( N =1116), participants considering guilty versus innocent targ…
Social distancing from innocent victims by spatial distality
Drawing on just-world theory and theories of psychological distance, we tested the idea that people respond to injustice by symbolically distancing themselves from innocent victims. Across 12 studies using varied victimization contexts and spatial arrangement methods, we examined whether perceived injustice motivates people to place victims further from the self in visual space based on perceived value or personality similarity. Participants dist…
Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (5 works) · Political science (4 works) · Harm (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Biology and political orientation (2 works)