Academic Summit

Beliefs in the Mickey Shunick Case: The Impact of Familiarity, Involvement and Individual Differences

Hamilton Hall 113

In the early hours of May 19, 2012, a 21-year-old college student named Micheala “Mickey” Shunick went missing while riding her bike in her hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. As family, friends, and community members became aware of her disappearance, serious efforts were made to locate her. Eventually thousands of individuals throughout the surrounding area and beyond rallied together in the search effort. During the several months of searching for Mickey, many opinions were shared regarding people’s fears, accusations, and concerns about the case. While some individuals–who were otherwise strangers to the family–helped to search for Mickey, others feared for themselves and their loved ones or blamed Mickey for riding her bike alone at night. The current study serves as a retrospective look at the predictors for the different attitudes and reactions that people had about the case. In this study, we found that people who were more familiar with Mickey tended to blame her and victims in general less. People more involved with the case also tended to use less victim blame. In addition, people more involved with the case tended to be more fearful during the time of the search for Mickey and presently. This research indicates that being involved in the case of a high-profile victim may reduce victim blame, but may also result in the negative consequence of increased fear.