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How does Belief in a Just World and Gender affect Victim Blaming in a Dynamical Context?

Nilsson, Elin LU and Örtegren, Jessica LU (2025) PSYK12 20242
Department of Psychology
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate how a belief in a just world and gender affect victim blaming in a dynamical context, while controlling for age as a background variable. A total of 60 participants were included in the study, gathered through a convenience sample. The study was conducted as a survey with a dynamically evolving scenario of a sexual assault, where participants attributed blame to both a female victim and a male perpetrator after each of 12 presented narrative prompts. A scale was used to measure belief in a just world, divided into personal and general belief in a just word. The results showed that women attribute less blame to the victim and higher blame to the perpetrator than men, even though blame in general was higher... (More)
This study aimed to investigate how a belief in a just world and gender affect victim blaming in a dynamical context, while controlling for age as a background variable. A total of 60 participants were included in the study, gathered through a convenience sample. The study was conducted as a survey with a dynamically evolving scenario of a sexual assault, where participants attributed blame to both a female victim and a male perpetrator after each of 12 presented narrative prompts. A scale was used to measure belief in a just world, divided into personal and general belief in a just word. The results showed that women attribute less blame to the victim and higher blame to the perpetrator than men, even though blame in general was higher for the perpetrator for both genders. Through the visual analysis of the dynamical attributed blame it appeared that women tended to fluctuate less than men in response to the presented narratives in the developing scenario. Furthermore, a hierarchical regression analysis revealed gender to be a significant predictor for victim blame alongside GBJW. For perpetrator blame, age and gender were found to be significant predictors while PBJW and GBJW did not. The results fall in line with earlier findings, though they differ slightly from similar Swedish research about victim blaming in relation to gender and BJW. Implications of these differences and the addition of the dynamical systems method used are discussed along with suggestions for future research to expand upon these findings. (Less)
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author
Nilsson, Elin LU and Örtegren, Jessica LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYK12 20242
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Belief in a just world, gender, victim blaming, dynamical systems framework, sexual assault
language
English
id
9186735
date added to LUP
2025-03-20 07:46:44
date last changed
2025-03-20 07:46:44
@misc{9186735,
  abstract     = {{This study aimed to investigate how a belief in a just world and gender affect victim blaming in a dynamical context, while controlling for age as a background variable. A total of 60 participants were included in the study, gathered through a convenience sample. The study was conducted as a survey with a dynamically evolving scenario of a sexual assault, where participants attributed blame to both a female victim and a male perpetrator after each of 12 presented narrative prompts. A scale was used to measure belief in a just world, divided into personal and general belief in a just word. The results showed that women attribute less blame to the victim and higher blame to the perpetrator than men, even though blame in general was higher for the perpetrator for both genders. Through the visual analysis of the dynamical attributed blame it appeared that women tended to fluctuate less than men in response to the presented narratives in the developing scenario. Furthermore, a hierarchical regression analysis revealed gender to be a significant predictor for victim blame alongside GBJW. For perpetrator blame, age and gender were found to be significant predictors while PBJW and GBJW did not. The results fall in line with earlier findings, though they differ slightly from similar Swedish research about victim blaming in relation to gender and BJW. Implications of these differences and the addition of the dynamical systems method used are discussed along with suggestions for future research to expand upon these findings.}},
  author       = {{Nilsson, Elin and Örtegren, Jessica}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{How does Belief in a Just World and Gender affect Victim Blaming in a Dynamical Context?}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}