The current study sought to assess the impact of the race, gender, and ethnicity of rape victims on college students’ propensity to assign culpability to victims. Using a sample of college students (n=279) from a mid-sized Southeastern university, respondents were given a set of six different vignettes, varying only by victim characteristics. These vignettes featured alcohol-facilitated sexual assault between acquaintances, a common occurrence in college environments. Respondents were asked to evaluate the culpability of the victim through a blameworthiness scale. Through the incorporation of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, this study also measured the respondents’ propensity to assign blame to female rape victims and to alleviate male perpetrators of any responsibility. Results indicated that adherence to rape myth acceptance was a more significant predictor of blameworthiness than victim or respondent characteristics. This exploratory study was designed to add to the growing body of literature examining attitudes toward acquaintance rape.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research has demonstrated that negative perceptions of rape victims may vary based on characteristics such as the victims’ race (e.g., Estrich, 1987; Wyatt, 1992). This study examined rape from feminist (e.g., Collins, 1991; hooks, 2003) and Social Dominance Theory (SDT; e.g., Pratto, 1996; Sidanius, 1993) perspectives to assess the relationship between individuals’ social dominance orientation (SDO) and differences in their attitudes toward rape victims of differing races. After reading newspaper-style vignettes describing the rape of either a White or Black victim, participants (N = 83) completed measures assessing their levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA), gender role beliefs, SDO, racism, and social desirability. Results indicated that participants’ SDO scores significantly predicted their perceptions of the triviality of the rape. Specifically, when participants’ SDO scores were higher, they perceived the rape as less trivial for White victims. However, participants higher in SDO did not perceive the rape of Black victims as being either more or less trivial. Consistent with previous research, this study also found that negative attitudes toward women significantly predicted overall negative perceptions of both the Black and White rape victims (e.g., Hockett, Saucier, Hoffman, Smith, & Craig, in press) and that individuals perceived the Black rape victims as less credible than the White rape victims (Wyatt, 1992). These results contribute to our understanding of the relationships among individuals’ attitudes about power, race, and rape by offering support for feminist theories about the relationship between rape and power, as well as for SDT and feminist theories regarding the structure of dominance.

The aim of this present study was to investigate the effects of ambivalent sexism, locus of control, empathy and belief in a just world on attitudes toward rape victims. In order to do so, 425 graduate and undergraduate students at Middle East Technical University participated in the current study. The results of the study indicated that hostile sexism (&amp / #946 / = .47), empathy (&amp / #946 / = -.28), education (&amp / #946 / = -.22), internal locus of control (&amp / #946 / = .10), belief in a just world (&amp / #946 / = .10), benevolent sexism (&amp / #946 / = .10) and income (&amp / #946 / = -.09) had a significant contribution on the participants&rsquo / unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims after eliminating the effects of age and education. Additional analysis further revealed that male participants demonstrated significantly more endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than female participants. The main effect of pornography viewing on attitudes toward rape victims was not found significant. However, the results further indicated that there was a significant interaction effect among gender, pornography viewing and empathy. That is, in the high victim empathy condition male participants who had been exposed to pornography scored significantly higher on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than those who had never been exposed to it. On the other hand, in the high empathy condition, female participants who viewed pornography showed less endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than those who never viewed pornography. Finally, the results of the study indicated that the interaction effects of pornography viewing and hostile sexism were significant. Indeed, in the high hostile sexism condition, both male and female participants who were exposed to pornography showed significantly greater endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims when compared to those who did not watch pornography. The major contributions of this thesis are (1) investigating some of the effects of important demographic variables such as age, education and income, (2) comparing the unique contributions of locus of control, empathy, belief in a just world, hostile and benevolent sexism with a hierarchical regression analysis, and (3) showing the interaction effects of some variables like gender, pornography viewing, levels of empathy and hostile sexism on participants&rsquo / attitudes toward rape victims.