Expectancy violation and perceptions of rape victim credibility

Louisa Hackett · Andrew Day · Philip B Mohr

62 citations0/0 files storedLegal and Criminological Psychology

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Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies Deception detection and forensic psychology Jury Decision Making Processes

Abstract

Purpose. Rape victims have been found to have a heightened risk of secondary victimization in the legal system through biased perceptions of their credibility. In this study, participants observed a video of a rape victim reporting the crime and evaluated her credibility, to establish the influence of victim emotional expressiveness on evaluations of victim credibility. Methods. The nonverbal (eye‐contact, crying) and paralinguistic (tone of voice) behaviour of the rape victim was manipulated such that the emotional presentation viewed by observers was either expressive, or not expressive. One hundred and thirty seven participants were randomly allocated to observe a videotape of either an expressive or a non‐expressive victim. Participants’ specific expectations about the emotional expressiveness of rape victims in general were also measured. Results. Results revealed no significant main effect of emotional expressiveness on perceptions of credibility. However, among participants with a strong expectation of emotional expressiveness, a rape victim who was emotionally expressive was perceived to be significantly more credible than a victim who was not emotionally expressive. Conclusions. It appears to be expectancy violation rather than emotional expressiveness per se that biases observers’ perceptions of rape victim credibility.

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References

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2014Verbal Lie Detection Tools 2021Autistic Adults May Be Erroneously Perceived as Deceptive and Lacking Credibility 2019A meta-analysis of the emotional victim effect for female adult rape complainants: Does complainant distress influence credibility?2018Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations 2021Lessons from London: a contemporary examination of the factors affecting attrition among rape complaints

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