Differences between Japanese and American college students in giving advice about help seeking to rape victims

In this study, the author investigated differences in Japanese and American college students' tendencies to advise a hypothetical rape victim (their sister) to seek help from police, family members, or mental health professionals. Japanese students tended to encourage the victim to seek help from her family members, whereas American students tended to encourage her to seek help from police and mental health counselors. Cross-cultural discrepancies were marked by the following factors: (a) feelings of shame moderated advice to seek help from police; (b) minimization of rape mediated the likelihood to advise the involvement of police and mental health counselors; (c) attitudes toward mental health counselors mediated advice to seek help from them; and (d) the type of rape (stranger vs. date rape) moderated advice to report the crime to police.