NCJ Number
233291
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2010 Pages: 239-258
Date Published
December 2010
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examined a motivational account of rape victim blaming beyond that provided by a general antipathy towards women in an attempt to advance the understanding of negative responses to rape victims by connecting such reactions to system justification motivation.
Abstract
This research examined reactions towards female rape victims from a system justification perspective. Study 1 demonstrated that gender-related system justification motivation (Modern Sexism) predicted the propensity to blame a female rape victim among men, but not among women. Modern sexism predicted rape victim blaming among men even when statistically controlling for a general antipathy towards women, and the results were unaffected by social desirability concerns. Consistent with previous study on system justification theory, we demonstrated in Study 2 that system justification motivation can predict victim blaming also among women, provided that complementary stereotypes about women have been activated. By contrast, system justification motivation predicted men's propensity to blame a rape victim irrespective of whether complementary stereotypes about women had been experimentally activated. (Published Abstract) Tables, figures, appendix, and references