Cycle of blame or just world - Effects of legal verdicts on gender patterns in rape-myth acceptance and victim empathy

The conviction rate for sexual assault is persistently low in the United St ates. We propose a cycle-of-blame framework to highlight the possibility th at the same rape myths that limit convictions are in turn strengthened by n ot-guilty verdicts. Participants read a summary of a rape trial. in differe nt conditions, they were told that the jury's verdict was guilty or not gui lty. In a No-Verdict condition, participants merely read the summary. All 9 6 participants subsequently responded to questionnaires measuring rape-myth acceptance and victim empathy. Gender affected both the myth and empathy m easures, with women accepting fewer myths than men and exhibiting more empa thy for the victim. Gender and Condition interacted such that men showed gr eater acceptance of rape myths and less empathy after a not-guilty Versus a guilty verdict. Women evidenced consistently high empathy across condition s and greater myth acceptance after a guilty verdict. Although the cycle-of -blame principle is consistent with the performance of men, women's data re quire a different interpretation, which we base on just-world theory.