The effect of academic success on dehumanisation of the victim of sexual harrasment

In this study, the effect of academic status of the victim of sexual violence on dehumanization of, and attitudes towards the victim were examined. Dehumanization is denying the human characteristics of another person or group. In this study Haslam's (2006) conceptualization was adopted and the two different dimensions of dehumanization (denial of human nature or human uniqueness) were implicitly measured. Each dimension of dehumanization includes both positive and negative traits. Research show that one of the factors affecting the attitudes of individuals towards sexual violence incidents is the characteristics of victims. In this study, therefore, academic status of the victim was considered as one of the characteristics of the victim, and it was manipulated as successful versus unsuccessful. Besides, the priming effect of Moral Disengagement Scale (the order of presenting scale before or after the manipulation), as well as the gender of participants on dehumanization of, and attitudes towards the victim were examined. The present research has a 2 (priming effect of moral disengagement: before, after) x 3 (academic status: successful, unsuccessful, control) x 2 (participants' gender: woman, man) ANOVA design. Total of 117 students studying at Abant İzzet Baysal University School of Foreign Languages participated in the study. According to the results, participants were more likely to attribute positive human nature traits to the victim of the sexual harassment compared to the control condition where the academic status was not mentioned. The academically unsuccessful victim was attributed more negative human nature traits than the academically successful victim, while the victim was attributed more negative human nature traits in the control condition. In terms of human uniqueness, positive traits were less attributed to the academically unsuccessful victim, while negative traits were less attributed to the academically successful victim. Presenting the Moral Disengagement Scale before the manipulation reduced the level of female participants' empathy for the victim, while it increased the men's level of empathy for the victim. Participants felt empathy for the victim who was told as an unsuccessful student. While female participants were more likely to identify with the victim, the level of identification decreased significantly in the condition where Moral Disengagement Scale was presented beforehand.