The exonerating effect of sexual objectification: Sexual objectification decreases rapist blame in a stranger rape context

摘要

A blossoming body of research documents the effect of sexual objectification on social perception, but little is known about the consequences of sexual objectification. This paper examines how sexual objectification influences men and women’s rape perception in case of a stranger rape. Given that people attribute the full responsibility to the rapist in case of stranger (vs. acquaintance) rape, situational factors are more likely to shift attribution of rapist blame in cases of stranger rape. We hypothesized that victim’s sexual objectification might diminish rapist blame and increase victim blame in case of a stranger rape. Fifty-eight male and fifty-seven female Belgian undergraduate students were assigned to either a sexual objectifying (i.e. body focus) or to a personalized portrayal (i.e. face focus) of a rape victim. After reading a newspaper report depicting a stranger rape, participants were asked to evaluate the extent to which they blamed the rapist and the victim. As predicted, participants blamed the rapist less in the sexual objectification condition, regardless of participant gender. In contrast, sexual objectification did not increase victim blame. The implications of these findings for future research on sexual objectification, gender differences in rape perception, and sexual assault are discussed.