The effect of victims’ social support on attributions of blame in female and male rape

The effects of perceived social support of the victim, victim gender and participant gender on attributions of blame in rape were examined. The impact of Attitudes Toward Gender Roles were also investigated for their mediational role between participant gender and blame. One hundred and twenty-one participants read a report of an incident of rape and evaluated the victim and the perpetrator. Two ANOVAs showed that social support and participant gender influenced blame attributed to the victim, while victim gender influenced blame attributed to the perpetrator. Socially supported victims were blamed less than unsupported victims. Men were more blaming of rape victims than women, but further analyses showed this was mediated by attitudes towards gender roles. Men held significantly more traditional attitudes toward gender roles than women, and this accounted for the effect of participant gender on victim perceptions. The perpetrator of male rape was blamed less than the perpetrator of female rape. Findings are discussed in terms of the differential attributional mechanisms that may underpin men's and women's reasoning about different types of rape.

Citation:
Anderson, I. and Lyons, A. (2005) ‘The Effect of Victims’ Social Support on Attributions of Blame in Female and Male Rape’ Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35 (7) pp.1400–1417.