Gravelin, Claire R., Biernat, Monica and Baldwin, Matthew (2019). The impact of power and powerlessness on blaming the victim of sexual assault. Group Process Intergroup Relat., 22 (1). S. 98 - 116. LONDON: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD. ISSN 1461-7188

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Abstract

Sexual assault is often described as motivated by power, yet there is relatively little experimental research investigating the effect of power (and powerlessness) on interpretations of a sexual assault. Two studies manipulated participants' feelings of power prior to a thought-listing task about sexual assault victims (Study 1) or an evaluation of a case of sexual assault (Study 2). Among men, feelings of powerlessness led to reduced victim blaming, while powerlessness tended to increase victim blaming among women (Study 2). These results indicate that powerlessness has different implications for men and women, increasing men's ability to take the perspective of a victim of sexual assault, but increasing women's sense of threat and defensiveness. Both studies support a default status explanation for men such that feelings of powerlessness-a state that deviates from men's typical high-power default status in society-increase perspective taking and thereby reduce victim blame. Among women, however, powerlessness may trigger a defensive response, resulting in greater blaming.

Item Type: Journal Article
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Gravelin, Claire R.UNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Biernat, MonicaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Baldwin, MatthewUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-140583
DOI: 10.1177/1368430217706741
Journal or Publication Title: Group Process Intergroup Relat.
Volume: 22
Number: 1
Page Range: S. 98 - 116
Date: 2019
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Place of Publication: LONDON
ISSN: 1461-7188
Language: English
Faculty: Unspecified
Divisions: Unspecified
Subjects: no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
RAPE-MYTH-ACCEPTANCE; PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS; ACQUAINTANCE RAPE; STRANGER RAPE; DATE RAPE; PERCEPTIONS; ATTITUDES; ATTRIBUTIONS; GENDER; JUDGMENTSMultiple languages
Psychology, SocialMultiple languages
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/14058

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