Saturday, August 1, 2026
Science

Belief that men 'evolved to be like this' could lead to more victim-blaming in rape cases

New research from the U.K. suggests that being exposed to old ideas that portray male sexual violence as having an evolutionary explanation—such as it being biological and inevitable—can lead people to be more likely to blame the victim in rape cases. The researchers showed more than 600 people vide...

Belief that men 'evolved to be like this' could lead to more victim-blaming in rape cases
Image: Phys.org
New research from the U.K. suggests that being exposed to old ideas that portray male sexual violence as having an evolutionary explanation—such as it being biological and inevitable—can lead people to be more likely to blame the victim in rape cases. The researchers showed more than 600 people videos of either an evolutionary explanation of male sexual aggression, a sociocultural explanation, or an unrelated control video. Those participants then read a scenario that, while meeting the legal definition of rape, contained ambiguities, and then were asked to judge who was the perpetrator and who was the victim.

Originally published at Phys.org

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