The Chivalrous Bystander: The Role of Gender-Based Beliefs and Empathy on Bystander Behavior and Perceived Barriers to Intervention

Abstract

Despite substantial evidence demonstrating a relation between gender-based beliefs and violence against women, there has been little research examining whether sexist attitudes are related to prosocial bystander behavior. Understanding psychosocial influences on bystanders’ behavior could inform bystander training programs on college campuses, and so the current study examined the unique and joint effects of three gender-based attitudes (rape myth acceptance, hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism) and empathy in predicting bystander behavior and perceived barriers to intervention in situations that undergraduates ( N = 500; 70% female; Mage = 18.86 years) had experienced in the prior year. Benevolent sexism was the only gender-based attitude consistently associated with bystander behavior and perceived barriers. After accounting for participant empathy, benevolent sexism uniquely predicted less intervention in post-assault situations, greater perceived barriers in pre- and post-assault situations, and greater Failure to Perceive Responsibility and Skill Deficit barriers across situations. Associations between gender-based attitudes and bystander behavior also differed for men and women, with rape myth acceptance predicting greater Failure to Perceive Responsibility barriers and benevolent sexism predicting greater Skill Deficit barriers for women but not men. These results suggest that existing bystander education programs can be improved by explicitly addressing benevolent sexist beliefs and promoting empathy for victims of assault.

Modelling collective action to change social norms around domestic violence: social dilemmas and the role of altruism

“…Collective identity has been found to foster empathetic altruism, as women’s understanding of themselves as a social group makes them feel that ‘violence against one woman constitutes automatically also a threat against… others’ ( Kreft, 2019 ). Researchers studying sexual assault in the US have evidenced the role of empathy in promoting bystander action ( Beeble et al, 2008 ; Yule et al, 2020 ). Finally, reciprocal altruism has been observed in contexts where women already had reciprocal economic ties, such as microcredit groups in which women mobilised to support other group members against domestic violence ( Sanyal, 2009 ).…”

Barriers to Bystander Intervention in Sexual Harassment: The Dark Triad and Rape Myth acceptance in Indonesia, Singapore, and United Kingdom

“…People often help if they are certain that a situation involves abuse ( Bennett et al, 2014 ; Pugh et al, 2016 ), and may fail to look for more subtle cues indicating that a person is at risk. Individuals with lower levels of self-efficacy ( Yule & Grych, 2020 ), and higher levels of benevolent sexism and rape myth acceptance ( Yule et al, 2020 ) are more likely to perceive situations as low risk.…”

“…Indeed, in a large sample of US university students, a large proportion of those who did not intervene reported the reason as the incident being “none of their business” ( Hoxmeier et al, 2020 ). The lack of personal responsibility could be influenced by a number of factors, such as moral perceptions of the victim (e.g., promiscuity and intoxication), diffusion of responsibility, or individual characteristics of the bystander ( Bennett et al, 2014 ; Pugh et al, 2016 ; Robinson et al, 2020 ; Yule et al, 2020 ). For instance, lack of pro-social attitudes, low perceived control ( Bennett et al, 2014 ), benevolent sexism, and rape myth acceptance ( Yule et al, 2020 ) have all been related to absence of personal responsibility.…”

“…This step is an important one, as intervention may happen only if the bystander feels safe, and confident about what to do ( Bennett et al, 2014 ). Skills deficits seem to be a larger perceived barrier for women than for men ( Yule & Grych, 2020 ; Yule et al., 2020 ). It has also been related to benevolent sexism in women ( Yule et al, 2020 ).…”

How Do You Define Sexual Harassment?: Why Context Matters

“…The underlying subtheme of both forms of sexism, however, is the same: dominance by men (Glick et al, 2004). While previous researchers found that sexism positively related to rape myth acceptance (e.g., Canto et al, 2014;Rollero & Tartaglia, 2018), lower intentions to intervene (e.g., Gracia et al, 2018;Katz et al, 2018), and less intervention after an assault (benevolent sexism only; Yule et al, 2020), little is known about how sexism relates to the recognition of sexually harassing behaviors. Based on the attitudes representing benevolent and hostile sexism, we anticipate that those who perceive women as good, caring creatures who need protection (higher levels of benevolent sexism) will be more likely to identify sexually harassing behaviors.…”