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Body Language of Women and Judgments of Vulnerability to Sexual Assault
Author(s) -
Murzynski Jennifer,
Degelman Douglas
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1996.tb00088.x
Subject(s) - psychology , sexual assault , vulnerability (computing) , social psychology , stride , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , body language , poison control , developmental psychology , medical emergency , communication , computer security , medicine , physical medicine and rehabilitation , computer science
The present study experimentally examined the effects of body language on judgments of vulnerability to sexual assault by strangers. Four features of body language (stride length, weight shift, body‐limb movement, and foot movement) were manipulated to create 2 typical victim profiles and 1 typical nonvictim profile. Short videotapes of 3 adult female models walking alone in each of the 3 body language profiles were filmed. Forty‐one college students and 33 police officers individually viewed 3 videotapes (each showing a different model and a different body language profile) and made judgments for each about the woman's confidence level and vulnerability to sexual assault. As predicted, women in the 2 victim profiles were judged to be significantly more vulnerable to sexual assault and significantly less confident than women in the nonvictim profile. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.