The Big Role of Authority, Sanctity, and Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression in Blaming the Rape Victims: A Study on Culture of Honor

Abstract

According to Moral Foundation Theory, people rely on five intuitive-based foundations in their moral judgments. These foundations are divided into two clusters: Individualizing foundations (Care and Fairness) and Binding foundations (Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity). In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between moral foundations and AMMSA with victim-blaming and the moderating role of social desirability in Iranian Culture. Consistent with previous findings, victim-blaming was best predicted by AMMSA. Regarding moral foundations, victim-blaming was positively predicted by Authority and Sanctity and negatively predicted by Fairness. Although the best predictor of victim-blaming was AMMSA, Authority and Sanctity had a marginal difference with AMMSA in predicting victim-blaming. Analyses also showed that higher levels of Social Desirability moderated the Care foundation. Moreover, while there was no difference in victim-blaming among men and women, men were more accepting of AMMSA. With attention to previous literature, findings are discussed to gain a better understanding of the interaction between moral foundations and victim-blaming in various cultural contexts.

Qeirat Values and Victim Blaming in Iran: The Mediating Effect of Culture-Specific Gender Roles

“…Most recently, Bagherian Miandoab et al (2021) examined the moral roots of the Acceptance of Modern Beliefs About Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) and victim blaming. They have shown that binding moral foundations predict victim-blaming attitudes in the Iranian sample.…”