Abstract

SEGURA, Susana. Counterfactual reasoning, responsibility and blame for intimate partner violence against women: education and mass media as preventive factors. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2012, vol.5, n.3, pp.43-51. ISSN 1989-3809.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5231/psy.writ.2012.0711.

This study focused on the perception of death due to intimate partner violence against women. I describe two experiments that analyzed the effects of controllability and perspective on the perceived causality of these events measured by means of counterfactual reasoning about the past and the future as much as attributions of responsibility and blame. The effects of empathy for a victim in the second experiment were also investigated. The participants' replies focused on controllable factors which were classified into four categories: perpetrator, victim, formal authority, and education and mass media. The results show that counterfactual reasoning depends on empathy whereas attributions depend on both empathy and perspective. These results demonstrate an association between these cognitive processes and also help to establish some factors that may prevent these events. Finally, specific implications for education and the mass media are drawn from the study.

Keywords : Violence against Women; Education; Mass Media; Counterfactual Reasoning; Responsibility; Blame.

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