Dehumanization of and helping to women: The effects of perceived in/out-group, and the rape

The aim of this study was to investigate the dehumanization of and helping to women in the context of the perceived group membership and being raped. The study was conducted with the participation of 88 female university students. Experimental conditions of research were created with two different stories formed by two female profiles. Only one of the two stories was presented to each participant. It was expected that in this two different stories, one of the women was perceived as in-group member while the other was perceived as out-group member. To be clear, an experimental group and a control group was created with each of the two stories, whereas in one of the stories a woman is being raped. In the control conditions, the woman in the story was only introduced, while the information of rape was given to participants in experimental conditions, in addition. Dehumanization was measured by Dehumanization Scale, which includes two dimensions defined by Haslam (2006). These dimensions were human uniqueness and human nature. Helping was measured by Helping Scale. The results showed that, group perception (in/out-group membership) had a significant effect and rape information had a marginal significant effect on attribution of the human uniqueness traits to women. Moreover, group perception had a marginal significant effect and rape information had a significant effect on the attribution of the human nature traits to women,. Finally, it was found that the perception of the rape victims either as an in-group or an out-group member had not significant effect on helping to rape victims. Key words: In-group, out-group, rape, dehumanization, and helping.