"we propose a model whereby retaliation following abusive supervision alleviates the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions"

Righting a wrong: Retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice

ABSTRACT

When a subordinate receives abusive treatment from a supervisor, a natural response is to retaliate against the supervisor. Although retaliation is dysfunctional and should be discouraged, we examine the potential functional role retaliation plays in terms of alleviating the negative consequences of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. Based on the notion that retaliation following mistreatment can restore justice for victims, we propose a model whereby retaliation following abusive supervision alleviates the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. In two experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), whereby we manipulated abusive supervision and subordinate symbolic retaliation—in particular, harming a voodoo doll that represents the abusive supervisor—we found general support for our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

One method went as follows.

Manipulating retaliation 

We used a voodoo doll task (VDT) paradigm to manipulate retaliation. The VDT is a validated task that has been used for measuring harming behaviors (DeWall et al., 2013; Finkel et al., 2012; Slotter et al., 2012). This task usually involves participants stabbing a doll that represents a specific person (e.g., spouse, offspring, reviewer, or someone who has offended them; Bushman, DeWall, Pond, & Hanus, 2014; McCarthy, Crouch, Basham, Milner, & Skowronski, 2016; Denzler et al., 2009; Liang, Brown, et al., in press), and the goal of the task is to symbolically harm the doll that represents the specific person. The underlying mechanism of the VDT is based on the law of similarity (Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff, 1986) whereby people project characteristics of the person onto the voodoo doll; thus, the process of harming the voodoo doll bears psychological similarities to the process of causing harm to the person that the voodoo doll symbolically represents (DeWall et al., 2013). In our study, we manipulated retaliation by instructing participants to harm a voodoo doll that represents their supervisor. In particular, in the abusive supervision/retaliation condition, we instructed participants to first go to a website (http://www.dumb.com/ voodoodoll) where they encountered an online voodoo doll. They were then asked to label the voodoo doll with their supervisor's initials. Next, we asked the participants to use the materials provided (e.g., pins, pliers, fire) on the doll over the next minute. In the abusive supervision/ no retaliation condition, participants were shown a screenshot of the voodoo doll from the website, they were asked to label the doll as “Nobody”, and trace the outline of the doll with a cursor over the next minute.

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