The Unintended Consequences of Rape Disclosure: The Effects of Disclosure Content, Listener Gender, and Year in College on Listener’s Reactions

Abstract

Rape is prevalent on American college campuses. Rape survivors often disclose their experience to their peers in hope of receiving support and obtaining justice (i.e., the intended consequences of disclosure). Yet, rape disclosures may also lead to unintended consequences, such as stigma. How peers react to survivors' disclosures of rape greatly influences survivors' recovery and their decision to press charges against their perpetrators. In this article, we explore gender differences in responses to rape disclosures. Using an experimental design ( N = 391), we investigate reactions to stigmatizing (versus nonstigmatizing) rape disclosures. We find that, when controlling for the experimental condition, college men stigmatize the rape survivor more than college women. However, in response to a stigmatizing (versus nonstigmatizing) rape disclosure, college women who have been in college longer, compared with college men, have more stigmatizing reactions toward the person disclosing that information. Their reactions then predict increased social distance between the recipient of the disclosure and rape survivors.

Predictors of Disclosure Recipients’ Social Reactions to Victims’ Disclosures of Dating and Sexual Violence: A Longitudinal Study of College Students

“…For example, Bonnan-White et al (2018) found in a study of college student victims that female disclosure recipients were more likely than male disclosure recipients to offer emotional support, distraction, and tangible aid. This echoes findings from other studies that women generally respond more positively and less negatively than men to DSV disclosures (Ahrens & Campbell, 2000; Iles et al, 2018). However, not all studies have documented associations between disclosure recipient gender and social reactions to disclosure (Edwards & Dardis, 2016).…”

Responding to Disclosure of Sexual Assault: The Potential Impact of Victimization History and Rape Myth Acceptance

“…Third, a multitude of factors likely influence sexual assault disclosure reactions. For example, Iles et al (2018) recently found that the content of the sexual assault disclosure (e.g., whether the victim reported drinking during the assault, having multiple previous sexual partners, or indicating that she did not clearly articulate her lack of consent) is predictive of the listener’s reactions. Future studies should aim to examine these factors in combination with victimization history and rape myth acceptance to more fully understand the recipients’ reactions to disclosure.…”

Exploring the association between anticipated and actual responses to disclosures of intimate partner violence and sexual assault

“…One factor is gender of the disclosure recipient. As compared to men, women tend to provide fewer negative and more positive social reactions (Bonnan-White et al, 2018; Iles et al, 2018). Cognitive responses may also differ according to gender, with women being more empathetic than men (Osmann, 2011; Verhofstadt et al, 2016).…”

“…We hypothesized, based on the theory of planned behavior, that anticipated responses would be strongly associated with subsequent actual responses. Because previous research shows that disclosure recipient gender (Bonnan-White et al, 2018; Iles et al, 2018), whether alcohol was involved in the assault (Ullman & Najdowski, 2010), and relationship closeness between the recipient and victim (Edwards & Dardis, 2020) may impact anticipated and actual responses, we examined these constructs as potential moderators of the association between anticipated and actual responses (Aim 2). We hypothesized that the positive association between anticipated and actual responses would be stronger for women than men, stronger for victims than nonvictims, stronger when alcohol was not involved in the assault than when alcohol was involved, and stronger when the relationship between the recipient and victim was close than when the relationship was not close.…”