Victim's Provocativeness and Victim's Attractiveness as Determinants of Blame in Rape

Abstract

Recent studies of rape have emphasized the attractiveness of the victim as a determinant in people's judgments of the victim's blameworthiness. The present study provided 120 undergraduates with four hypothetical rape stories in which the victim's pre-rape behavior and attractiveness were independently varied. The results indicate that the victim's attractiveness is not a determining factor of the victim's blameworthiness when subjects are given descriptions of victim's pre-rape behavior. The results were discussed in the context of a “just world” hypothesis.