Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Abstract

This research explores the possibility of an Attitude Change based intervention for victim blaming following and surrounding incidents of sexual assault and sexual violence. The study aimed at creating an intervention to successfully decrease and minimize victim blaming attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and tendencies through a combination of internalization strategies, self-reference effects, and empirically supported attitude change methods. There were 149 participants who completed the study. Participants were tasked to complete a series questionnaires measuring Hostile sexism, Benevolent sexism, Just World Bias, Robbery Victim Blame, then complete the intervention, a brief educational reading and a self-generated response to a fictional rape scenario, or the control, a writing response regarding the Center for Disease Control’s Sexual Violence pamphlet, and lastly the Victim Blame Scale. Results initially suggested a marginally significant effect of the intervention, but this is likely accounted for by a difference in hostile sexism across groups that occurred despite randomization. Further research is required, but this study created the path for a successful intervention to reduce victim blaming post sexual assault.

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