The Exonerating Effect of Sexual Objectification: Sexual Objectification Decreases Rapist Blame in a Stranger Rape Context

Abstract

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 perceptions in case of a stranger rape. We hypothesized that victims' sexual objectification might diminish rapist blame and increase victim blame in cases of stranger rape. Fifty-eight male and 57 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. These results have implications for the well-being of rape victims, as well as for the functioning of justice if it leads authorities to show leniency towards the length of penalty a rapist may receive. The implications of these findings for future research on sexual objectification and gender differences in rape perception are also discussed.

Dress and sex: a review of empirical research involving human participants and published in refereed journals

“…Researchers from Belgium and the UK (Bernard et al 2015) also used objectification theory in their research about the consequences of sexual objectification in cases of sexual assault. Belgian undergraduate participants read a newspaper article about a sexual assault accompanied by a picture of the woman, a model, who was assaulted.…”

“…Similarly, Bernard et al (2015) used just world theory to investigate the extent to which the objectification of a rape survivor might alter perceptions of the perpetrator. The dependent variables were the extent to which the survivor was blamed and the extent to which the perpetrator was blamed.…”

“…Furthermore, men attributed more blame to the survivor than did women. Both Bernard et al (2015) and Loughnan et al (2013) demonstrate how other-objectification biases interpretations of sexual violence. These biases have implications for perpetrator sentencing as well as for overcoming the effects of sexual violence.…”

“…We echo Budesheim's (2011) call for a clear definition of sexual objectification and how it is manifest. In terms of other-objectification, researchers have found that women objectify other women, but not men; whereas men objectify other men as well as women (Bernard et al 2015;Loughnan et al 2013;Nezlek et al 2015). Future research will benefit by continued use of male stimuli in experiments to further investigate links between other-objectification and dress, possible antecedents and outcomes, and gender differences.…”

Women’s revealing Halloween costumes: other-objectification and sexualization

“…However, media researchers have demonstrated SO of men in Western media (Elliott & Elliott, 2005;Leit, Gray, & Pope, 2002). In studies of other-objectification, results have shown that men objectify others, both men and women, whereas women objectify other women but not men (Bernard, Loughnan, Marchal, Godart, and Klein, 2015;Loughnan et al, 2013;Nezlek et al, 2015). Given this focus on men and objectification, the following research question was developed.…”