Religion and Victim Blame in Sexual Assault Cases: Evidence of the Black Sheep Effect.

Authors

Kathryn Sperry, Madison Arave, Layla Manzanares

Published in

Violence against women. Pages 10778012261461595. Jun 18, 2026. Epub Jun 18, 2026.

Abstract

The black sheep effect (BSE) occurs when "deviant" ingroup members are judged more negatively compared to deviant outgroup members. We tested the BSE in the context of perceptions of rape victims. In a 4 (participant religion) × 3 (victim religion) × 2 (gender) between-subjects design (N = 760), Latter-Day Saints (LDS) (Mormon) participants blamed the LDS victim more than the Catholic victim. Utah LDS participants had higher negative affect toward the LDS victim compared to the Catholic victim. Catholic participants did not show this pattern, suggesting a need to examine additional contextual factors, including religious salience and cultural tightness. Implications are discussed.

PMID:
42312344
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Jun 2026.

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