Misfortune deserved, undeserved
Research Proposal Draft
In this study, I would propose to correlate 2 questions from the Just World questionnaire and the acceptance of Rape Myths questionnaire. The hypothesis would be: the greater the likelihood that a person agrees with the statement that “People who meet with misfortune have often brought it on themselves” the more likelihood that the person will agree with the statement that “If a girl engages in necking or petting and she lets things get out of hand, it is her own fault if the partner forces sex on her.” The working hypothesis is: Males will more likely than females agree with the statement that “If a girl engages in necking or petting and she lets things get out of hand, it is her own fault if the partner forces sex on her.”
In general, I hypothesize that men will be more likely than women to accept rape myths as Men are more likely to have a higher belief in just world, as I hypothesize that “just world belief” will be positively associated with rape myth acceptance. In other words, the higher one’s belief that the world is just, the more likely they are to be accepting rape myths.
People who would want to believe that the world is a safe, just place where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get, will be very reluctant to give up this belief that the world is not just. They don't like to think about themselves being the victims of a violent crime, so by doing this, they can go on believing that they will never be the victim of such a crime because they will simply avoid those behaviors that might create trouble for themselves. In case of misfortunate event with someone else, they would use strategies to eliminate threats to their belief in the just world such as denial, withdrawal, and reinterpretation of the event. So in the case when they hear about a victim of random misfortune such as a rape victim, they may blame the victim on any number of dimensions including her clothing, behavior, or her personality and would rearrange the cognition
