Characterological and Behavioral Blame in Conversations about Female and Male Rape

Abstract

This study investigated the spontaneous occurrence of characterological and behavioral blame in talk about rape. Although participants are willing to attribute both types of blame to rape survivors when prompted to do so by preexisting categories on questionnaires, little is known about the naturalistic aspect of these concepts as they might occur during the course of conversation. The present study also examined how participant and survivor gender influence these attributions. Findings showed that observers attributed both characterological and behavioral blame to rape survivors spontaneously during the course of conversation and in similar proportions to the self-blame observed in rape survivors. Also, both men and women blamed female and male survivors differently. Both men and women attributed more behavioral blame to the female than to the male survivor. Men also attributed more characterological blame to the female than to the male survivor, whereas female participants attributed equal amounts of characterological blame to both survivors.