Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Victim-blaming is thought to be a result of the fundamental attributional error, where people over-emphasize internal attributions about the victim. Despite this, there is little literature on manipulating the focus of attention and the result for victim-blaming. People who are high in rape myth acceptance tend to visually focus on the victims longer (Süssenbach et al., 2015). Rempala and Bernieri (2005) found that adding irrelevant information, such as height and weight, to the trial about the victim increased victim-blaming compared to when it was absent. The current study investigated if relevant information about the victim and perpetrator changed the amount of blame assigned to the victim and perpetrator; this relationship was expected to be mediated by the number of idea units about the victim or perpetrator that the participant included in their summary.

Year manuscript completed

2026

Year degree awarded

2026

Author's Keywords

Focus of Attention, Victim Blaming, Fundamental Attributional Error

Degree Awarded

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

College/School

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Thesis Advisor

Jana Hackathorn

Committee Member

Patrick Cushen

Committee Member

Daniel Wann

Committee Member

Alaina Steele

Document Type

Thesis

Download

Share

COinS