People derogate their victims to justify having harmed them.

Evidence

There is empirical evidence for the occurrence of these sorts of changes following the commission of a morally ambiguous act. In a set of studies involving an experimental cover story very similar to Milgram’s, and in which subjects were led to give electric shocks to others, Brock and Buss (1962) demonstrated that the subjects’ perceptions of the individual to whom they gave shocks altered in ways that justified their morally ambiguous actions; they derogated the victim, implying that the victim somehow deserved the punishment. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3962

Categorization

• XREF: Directly echoes Lerner’s just-world theory and the classic victim-derogation literature; parallels real-world atrocity rationalization. — connects to: Representational acts that belittle are themselves a form of violence. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1820; Committing morally ambiguous acts leads actors to derogate victims — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 3961; Perpetrators can overlook their own role in degrading victims even when they caused it — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 362 (+3 more)