Nina Schmidt

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between sexual objectification, self-objectification, rape myth acceptance, and victim blaming. Participants first completed a self-objectification and rape myth acceptance questionnaire and engaged in a short cognitive task to mitigate priming effects. They were then shown either sexualized images (experimental condition) or neutral images (control condition), read a vignette depicting a sexual assault, and answered questions to assess their victim blaming score. Contrary to previous literature, sexual objectification did not affect victim blaming. Additionally, self-objectification was not related to victim blaming, but rape myth acceptance was strongly, positively related to victim blaming such that higher rape myth acceptance predicted higher of victim blaming scores. Additional analyses revealed that males scored higher than females on rape myth acceptance, but males and females did not score differently on victim blaming or self-objectification. This study provides important results aligning with past research on some dimensions, but do not support other aspects of previous literature, thus exemplifying the complex, multifaceted nature of victim blaming, and the cultural factors associated with the phenomenon.

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