Psychological causality in the attribution of responsibility for rape

According to a legal model of the attribution of responsibility for rape, judgments of physical and psychological causality of an alleged rapist are combined into overall evaluations of attacker responsibility. It was hypothesized that observers evaluate psychological causality by reconstructing the thought patterns of the accused rapist and by classifying this mental activity along dimensions of responsibility. Subjects read crime briefs, rated dimensions of responsibility, and assigned sentences. Factor analysis and analyses of variance indicate that observers organize psychological causality of the rapist around dimensions of intended violence, and the extent to which the attacker's thoughts are attributable to the victim. Multivariate analysis of variance confirmed the expected effects of the attacker's thoughts on judgments of culpability.This research was supported by a St. Louis University Beaumont Grant. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Kevin Wayne for assisting in data collection and analysis. A special thank you is extended to Audrey Feldman, who reviewed an earlier draft of this paper.     

Cognitive mediators of reactions to rape

Subjects were exposed to slides that primed different concepts associated with aggression, close personal interactions between men and women, and women as sex objects. Then, as part of an ostensibly unrelated study, they read the testimonies of several rape victims and made judgments concerning both the victim and the alleged rapist. Exposure to negative consequences of aggression apparently threatened subjects' beliefs in a just world, leading subjects to interpret rape incidents in ways that reaffirm this belief (i.e., it strengthened subjects' beliefs that the defendant should be punished, but it also caused them to attribute more responsibility for the incident to the victim). Portrayals of close personal relationships between men and women increased male subjects' beliefs that rape victims were responsible for the incident, but had the opposite effect on female subjects' beliefs. Portrayals of women as sex objects decreased male subjects' beliefs in the victim's credibility and increased their beliefs that she was responsible for the incident; however, it had the opposite effects on female subjects' judgments. Despite their effects on judgments of the rape victim, priming manipulations did not affect beliefs that the defendant should be convicted. Implications of these results for the effects of the public media on attitudes and beliefs about rape are discussed.     

The Consideration of Rape: The Effect of Target Information Disparity on Judgments of Guilt1

We hypothesized that increasing the amount of individuating but case‐irrelevant information about a target in a date‐rape trial (i.e., either the defendant or the victim/witness) would increase attributions of responsibility for that target and would thus influence judgments of defendant guilt. As predicted, merely adding trivial information, such as the victim's age, college major, and city of residence, to the rape trial vignette decreased judgments of guilt for the defendant; whereas adding corresponding information regarding the defendant increased judgments of his guilt. Ratings of perceived similarity to defendant and victim correlated significantly with responsibility and guilt, but were unaffected by the information manipulation. We suggest that target information increases target salience, which results in an increase of attributions of responsibility.     

Physical and psychological causality as determinants of culpability in sexual harassment cases

In this study a hierarchical legal model was presented to explain how observers arrive at decisions regarding culpability and disciplinary action in cases of alleged sexual harassment. Subjects read a vignette describing a sexual advance. Information about the flagrance of the request, the victim's response, and the frequency of similar encounters were manipulated in order to examine their impact on dimensions of culpability. Subjects then completed a series of Likert-type scales designed to assess the critical dimensions in the model. The findings provided support for the model, suggesting that subject's decisions regarding physical causality and psychological causality are critical factors in attribution of responsibility and that these attributions impact subsequent disciplinary decisions.     

Group entitativity and group perception: associations between physical features and psychological judgment

Two experiments tested whether the perceived entitativity of groups (i.e., cohesiveness) influences judgments about those groups, in terms of both their observable physical properties and underlying psychological traits. Entitativity was manipulated with groups whose members were similar or dissimilar in skin color. Experiment 1 demonstrated that beliefs about entitativity elicited more accurate judgments of skin color for entitative than nonentitative social groups, although memory for individual members of entitative groups was relatively impoverished. Experiment 2 revealed that entitative groups were viewed as not only physically similar but also psychologically homogeneous and elicited strong negative trait and behavioral judgments. Together, these findings suggest that physical properties (e.g., similarity) can create perceptions of psychological "groupness" that have important consequences for group perception.     

Social Influences on Judgments of Rape Victims: The Role of the Negative and Positive Social Reactions of Others

An experimental study examined whether judgments about a rape victim can be influenced by the social reactions of others, and whether this effect would be moderated by the type of rape (stranger or date rape) or by the gender of the participants. One hundred and ten U.S. college students (90% white; 59% female) responded to rape vignettes in which the type of rape and the social reactions received by the victim (negative, positive, or neutral) were manipulated. People exposed to negative social reactions made less positive judgments. Men and people who read about a date rape also made less positive judgments, but neither variable interacted with type of reactions to impact judgments.     

The effects of physical distance between regular and sale prices on numerical difference perceptions

This paper draws upon the psychological, psycho-physiological, and numerical cognition literature(s) to suggest that numerical difference perceptions may be influenced by the physical distance between two prices. In the context of four experiments, we find that a greater horizontal separation of prices leads to greater difference (and hence price-discount) perceptions. The greater price-discount perceptions are linked to a higher perceived value and increased purchase likelihood. The effect is not observed for prices separated by large versus small vertical distances. The processing mechanisms driving our results involve the automatic and non-conscious encoding of “magnitude representations” (i.e., judgments of relative size) related to both relevant (numerical difference) and non-relevant (physical distance) dimensions.     

Traditional and Nontraditional Women's Attributions of Responsibility to Physically Resistive and Nonresistive Rape Victims1

This research examined the interactive effect of women observers' sex-role attitudes and a victim's use of physical resistance on perceptions of victim responsibility for a sexual assault. Women read one of two rape scenarios in which a victim either did or did not physically resist a rapist's attack and made judgments concerning victim responsibility. The observers were categorized as being either traditionally conservative or nontraditionally profeminist in their attitudes toward women and their roles in society. An analysis of responsibility judgments indicated that traditional women perceived a victim who resisted the attack as being more responsible for her own victimization than did nontraditional women, whereas nontraditional women assigned more responsibility to a victim who did not resist than did traditional women. These results are considered from a sex-role socialization perspective; the implications of these findings for legal and health care professionals are discussed.     

Community-based Norms About Intimate Partner Violence: Putting Attributions of Fault and Responsibility into Context

Fault and responsibility are key concepts in understanding how victims and assailants are, or are not, held accountable by society. We used a fractional factorial vignette design with a community-residing sample of 3,679 adults to examine judgments about intimate partner violence (IPV). Although fault, or causal responsibility, was assigned most often to assailants (69%), respondents assigned solution responsibility most often to both persons (52%) or to the victim alone (31%): interpersonal communication for couples (38%) and self-protective actions for victims (i.e., engaging formal authorities [12%] and/or leaving the assailant [11%]) were the most frequent suggestions. Potential injury to the victim and gender/relationship-based norms had the greatest impact on judgments. Findings may inform strategies to alter social norms regarding IPV. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Actor-observer differences in realism in confidence and frequency judgments

Taking a social psychological approach to metacognitive judgments, this study analyzed the difference in realism (validity) in confidence and frequency judgments (i.e., estimates of overall accuracy) between one's own and another person's answers to general knowledge questions. Experiment 1 showed that when judging their own answers, compared with another's answers, the participants exhibited higher overconfidence, better ability to discriminate correct from incorrect answers, lower accuracy, and lower confidence. However, the overconfidence effect could be attributable to the lowest level of confidence. Furthermore, when heeding additional information about another's answers the participants showed higher confidence and better discrimination ability. The overconfidence effect of Experiment 1 was not found in Experiment 2. However, the results of Experiment 2 were consistent with Experiment 1 in terms of discrimination ability, confidence, and accuracy. Finally, in both experiments the participants gave lower frequency judgments of their own overall accuracy compared with their frequency judgments of another person's overall accuracy.     

Sexual and nonsexual marital aggression: Legal considerations, epidemiology, and an integrated typology of perpetrators

In this paper, the legal history of marital rape and the current status of “marital rape allowances” to sexual assault statutes are reviewed. The prevalence of marital rape and its comorbidity with nonsexual violence, as well as the physical and psychological sequelae found to be specifically associated with sexual aggression in marriage is reviewed. Our current limited theoretical understanding of the relationship between sexual and nonsexual violence in marriage is extended by integrating marital rape and marital violence batterer typology research. Specifically, we offer a four-type batterer typology integration (i.e., family-only, dysphoric/borderline, generally violent/antisocial, and sexually obsessive batterers) that fully describe husbands that are only nonsexually violent, both physically and sexually violent, or only sexually violent. Theoretical and practical implications of this integration are identified. Future research directions are outlined, and the need for greater clinical attention to the phenomena of sexual violence in marriage is highlighted.     

Sexual and nonsexual marital aggression: Legal considerations, epidemiology, and an integrated typology of perpetrators

In this paper, the legal history of marital rape and the current status of “marital rape allowances” to sexual assault statutes are reviewed. The prevalence of marital rape and its comorbidity with nonsexual violence, as well as the physical and psychological sequelae found to be specifically associated with sexual aggression in marriage is reviewed. Our current limited theoretical understanding of the relationship between sexual and nonsexual violence in marriage is extended by integrating marital rape and marital violence batterer typology research. Specifically, we offer a four-type batterer typology integration (i.e., family-only, dysphoric/borderline, generally violent/antisocial, and sexually obsessive batterers) that fully describe husbands that are only nonsexually violent, both physically and sexually violent, or only sexually violent. Theoretical and practical implications of this integration are identified. Future research directions are outlined, and the need for greater clinical attention to the phenomena of sexual violence in marriage is highlighted.     

The Role of Rape Myth Acceptance and Psychopathy in Sexual Assault Perpetration

Perpetrators of sexual aggression consistently report higher scores on measures of psychopathy and acceptance of rape myths relative to nonperpetrators. However, less is known about psychopathy among nonincarcerated individuals and the relation between the two constructs has not been empirically examined among college perpetrators. To address this gap, both constructs were measured in a sample (N?=?308) of college men. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with psychopathy, and perpetrators scored higher on both constructs. Myths transferring responsibility to victims were related to Factor 1 psychopathy (i.e., callous and manipulative traits). The myth that “rape is trivial” was associated with Factor 1 and Factor 2 (i.e., impulsive and antisocial behavior), possibly suggesting that this myth is related to a larger tendency to excuse aggressive behavior. Although both constructs distinguished perpetrators when considered individually, rape myth acceptance did not explain unique variance in the presence of psychopathy.     

Attribution of responsibility for rape: The influence of observer empathy,victim resistance,and victim attractiveness

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of a rape victim's physical attractiveness and resistance to rape on subjects' attributions of responsibility for the crime, certainty of the defendant's guilt, and social perceptions of the rape victim and defendant. Subjects' pretrial empathy toward rape victims and rapists was assessed by scores on the Rape Empathy Scale (RES). In addition to significant sex differences in attributions of responsibility for the incident, subjects' pretrial empathy toward rape victims and rapists was predictive of their perceptions of the rape victim, the defendant, and the rape incident. Victim resistance and attractiveness effects were significant in that subjects responded least favorably to the unattractive rape victim, particularly when she resisted the rape by fighting with her attacker. Male subjects and subjects who exhibited low empathy toward the rape victim were more responsive to subtle manipulations of victim resistance and attractiveness than were females and high RES subjects. Several explanations for these results focus on the cognitive and affective responses of subjects. The implications of the study are discussed in relation to societal attitudes toward rape and the role of sexrole stereotyping, which fosters these attitudes.The present research was supported by National Institutes of Health Biomedical Research Support Grant #5-SO7-RRO7127-09 and National Science Foundation Grant #SES-8012316 to Sheila R. Deitz. The authors express their appreciation to Nancy Williams, Joanne Moran, Bill Willging, David Small, David Waldman, and Robert Kingsley for their assistance in data collection and analysis.Correspondence should be sent to Sheila R. Deitz, now at Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Box 100, Blue Ridge Hospital, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901. Copies of the Rape Empathy Scale and an extended report on the reliability and validity of scale are available from this author.     

Contrast and Rater-Perspective Effects on Judgments of Sexual Harassment Severity: What He Thinks She Thinks,and Vice Versa

We looked at whether ratings biases can influence judgments people make about sexually harassing behaviors. Online participants (N = 176) read and rated the severity of complaint scenarios describing different incidents of alleged harassment. We manipulated: (1) contrast effects, by having people judge other, independent scenarios before judging a target scenario, and (2) rater-perspective effects, by having people judge from both a self- and then an opposite-gender perspective. For the former, we hypothesized that if judgments about harassment are qualitatively similar to judgments made in other areas (e.g., performance appraisal), they too should show contrast effects. For the latter, we hypothesized people would use stereotypes about the other gender, thereby overestimating the true (i.e., self-perspective driven) gender difference. Results supported both hypotheses, suggesting that decision makers should be aware of the possible influence of biases when judging whether behaviors constitute harassment.     

Acceptability of positive and reductive behavioral interventions: Factors that influence teachers'' decisions

Treatment acceptability refers to individuals' judgments as to whether psychological treatment procedures are appropriate, fair, and reasonable for a given problem. In the present two-experiment study, experienced teachers' ratings of acceptability for positive (i.e., praise, home-based reinforcement, and token economy) and reductive (i.e., ignoring, response-cost lottery, and seclusion time-out) behavioral interventions were investigated. Using the Intervention Rating Profile (IRP) and a case study methodology to manipulate variables of intervention complexity and problem behavior severity, it was established that (a) teachers' acceptability ratings of both positive and reductive interventions varied with the severity of a target behavior, (b) the complexity of an intervention influenced teachers' ratings of acceptability, less complex or time-consuming interventions being rated generally more acceptable, and (c) mean acceptability ratings were significantly more favorable for positive than reductive treatments. These findings are discussed in the context of previous acceptability research and future investigations.     

When Group Influence Is More or Less Likely: The Case of Moral Judgments

We investigated whether group influence can change judgments even for high-consensus (i.e., unambiguous) moral norms. We found that participants often matched the judgment of the other current group members even when this moral judgment was normatively incorrect (nonstandard), and this occurred more for more ambiguous issues. Moreover, this social influence on public judgments was generally followed by private agreement and re-interpreting general values to be consistent with those judgements. We also found that participants who experienced a fit between their regulatory focus and their feelings of power (i.e., promotion/high power; prevention/low power) were less influenced by the group.     

On the automatic evaluation of end-states

The author's research examined automatically activated attitudes toward desired end-states. Across 4 studies, participants' automatic attitudes toward goals (i.e., thinness, egalitarianism) significantly predicted their goal pursuit, including behaviors, intentions, and judgments. Such attitudes predicted behavior and judgments that are difficult to monitor and control (i.e., restrained eating, subtle prejudice), but not judgments that are easy to monitor and control (i.e., blatant prejudice). Automatic attitudes toward goals also possessed unique predictive validity compared with explicit measures of motivation and with automatic attitudes toward more physical, "graspable" objects. The findings are discussed with regard to the predictive validity of automatic attitudes, the use of automatic attitudes toward goals as an implicit measure of motivation, and the role of automatic evaluative processes in goal-pursuit and self-regulation.     

Acquiring ownership and the attribution of responsibility

How is ownership established over non-owned things? We suggest that people may view ownership as a kind of credit given to agents responsible for making possession of a non-owned object possible. On this view, judgments about the establishment of ownership depend on attributions of responsibility. We report three experiments showing that people’s judgments about the establishment of ownership are influenced by an agent’s intent and control in bringing about an outcome, factors that also affect attributions of responsibility. These findings demonstrate that people do not just consider who was first to possess an object in judging who owns it, and are broadly consistent with the view that ownership is acquired through labor. The findings also suggest that rather than exclusively being the product of social conventions, judgments about the establishment of ownership over non-owned things also depend on the psychological processes underlying the attribution of responsibility.