TO: Students in CJ 141
FROM: R. B. Taylor
DATE: 10/8/00
RE: Results of questions about Thelma and Louise
On Friday October 6, 2000, fifty of you watched a segment of the 1991 film "Thelma and Louise," directed by Ridley Scott (of "Alien" fame). We viewed the film from where T&L entered the bar to where they exited the parking lot.
34 of the viewers (68%) were female; 16 (34%) were male; 22 or 44% had seen the film previously, and 28 or 56% had NOT seen the film previously.
The form you filled out asked 4 questions about "Belief in a Just World," as it pertains to yourself, not others. Your scores on the four items were averaged to get an index score on BJW. The HIGHER the score, the MORE you believe in a just world for yourself - good things happen to me because I deserve it.
As discussed in class, BJW is one of the biases in how we think about victims. We are more likely to "blame" victims - to hold them at least partially responsible for what happens to them -- if we believe more strongly in BJW.
Does that happen with you and your colleagues?
First I split the class up into three groups: low, medium, or high on BJW. The HORIZONTAL axis corresponds, as you go from left to right, to low, medium, to high BJW groups.
In addition I separated men and women. Males are in the white columns, women are in the striped columns.
The VERTICAL axis shows you the proportion in each group that gave Thelma at least some blame for the attempted sexual assault. On the question about percent of responsibility they gave a score higher than zero. So this is the portion "blaming" Thelma, at least somewhat.
As you can see, as men score higher on BJW (as you go from left to right) they are MORE likely to blame Thelma, at least somewhat.
By contrast, the women, as they scored higher on BJW (as you go from left to right) were LESS likely to blame Thelma. The height of the bars goes down.
In sum: the idea that the more you believe in a just world the more you blame the victim applies in this instance only for the men. The women in the class provided results that went opposite the prediction.
What are your thoughts on why this might be the case?