ATTRIBUTING RESPONSIBILITY TO FEMALE VICTIMS AFTER EXPOSURE TO SEXUALLY VIOLENT FILMS

We investigate the possibility that the degree to which female abuse v ictims are held accountable by other women who have been exposed to se xually violent mass media is primarily dependent upon 3 factors: situa tional relevance, personal similarity, and emotional arousal. Female s ubjects participated in an experiment. Factors were: film dose; film v iewing/victim judgment time interval; victim-subject similarity; and s ituational relevance of the assault. The results showed less attributi on of responsibility to similar victims and high attributions of respo nsibility to dissimilar victims in the personally relevant assault sit uation (rape). Women identified least with dissimilar rape victims and most with similar victims when they had not been desensitized. When s ubjects were desensitized, the defensive attribution effect failed to emerge. There was also a significant tendency among low film dose subj ects to perceive more psychological injury and to attribute more distr ess to the victim than among high film dose subjects.