1. An Experimental Method of Assessing
Bystander Intervention and Risk
Recognition in Sexual Assault
Situations
Rebecca Dinsmore, Danielle Carioto, Christa Franco, Allison Gage,
Kasey Jerioski, Taylor Morris

2. Background
• Sexual assault is a serious issue, especially on college campuses (cite this)
 1 in 4 women
 Men stats
• Effects of sexual assault (Chen, L. et al, 2010)
 Depression
 Anxiety
 Eating disorders
 PTSD
 Sleep disorders
 Suicide attempts
• The Bystander Effect- people are less likely to intervene in emergencies when others are present due
to the diffusion of responsibility and assumption that others will intervene instead (Clark & Word,
1974)

3. Bystander Intervention
• Bystander- a person who is neither the perpetrator nor victim, but is present (Katz & Moore, 2013)
 Responsive- respond/intervene to a risk that could result in harm
• This education approach aims to transform bystanders into responsive bystanders in hopes of
encouraging all people to take responsibility to prevent sexual assault and provide safety
(Katz & Moore, 2013)
• Teaching effective bystander skills may act as an important contribution in preventing rape
and sexual assault (Banyard, 2005)
 However, the skills taught must be in accordance with the type of risk the bystander will witness
• Variables that play a role in decision to intervene
(Banyard, 2011; Berkowizt, 2003; Foubert, 2000)
 Personality
 Coping style
 Self-efficacy
 Knowledge of sexual assault
 Attitudes about intervening as a bystander

4. Risk Recognition
• A big predicting factor for victimization
amongst college women is risk recognition
(Messman-Moore & Brown, 2006)
• Similar findings for men, according to
Hetzel-Riggin and Roby (2012)
 Women showed better risk perception in a
sexual assault scenario compared to men

5. Purpose of Study
• Assess risk recognition and intervention from the perspective of a bystander in a sexual
assault situation
• What causes people to intervene
• Administer educational programs that incorporate our findings
 Decrease sexual assault on college campuses
• Hypotheses:
1. Women will identify risk earlier than men
2. Women will report acting as a bystander earlier than men
3. Beliefs about bystander intervention, bystander self-efficacy, world assumptions, current
psychological symptoms, previous training, and previous sexual assault history will affect risk
perception and intent to intervene as a bystander

6. Methods
• Participants recruited from Penn State Behrend’s psychology research pool (SONA) for class
credit
 N=139
 Gender
 Mean age
 Ethnicity
• Study Procedures
 Done online through survey monkey
 All surveys were required to be taken in the Psychology Lab
 Read/sign informed consent
 Read a depiction of an acquaintance rape from the perspective of a bystander (25 scenes)
 After each scene, questions about participant’s emotional responses and what action they would take (if any) were
asked
 12 questionnaires including: Rape Myth Acceptance, Confidence in Bystander Behavior, the MVP Efficacy Scale,
Demographic Questions, and others.
 Verbal debriefing

7. Scenes (narrow down)
1. As a group of girls walk in, you overhear a group of guys joke, “look at all the potential”.
9. You hear him say, “Make this one strong.”
10. As you and your friends go over to sit down and rest from dancing, you notice that the guy has his hands on of the girls and
has moved to the side of the dance floor. She looks pretty drunk.
11. He starts moving his hands down her lower back and after a second, she turns away from him laughing a bit.
13. They find who she came with, but one of her friends is getting sick. Their designated driver says, “I can take her home and
come back to get you in a little while.” Another friend says, “You should stay. You look like you’re having a good time.”
17. You hear a bunch of commotion coming from another room so you go to check it out. You see that the girl and guy had lost the
game and the guy’s friends are teasing him for not scoring all game. The guy replies “Oh I think I'm definitely going to score
tonight," with a wink.
19. She mentions calling her designated driver because she wants to go home, but her phone is dead when she pulls it out of her
purse. She asks the guy to use his phone and he says she can, but first he talks her into a rematch with his friends.
21. She slurs her words and asks if he can just bring it out to her but he takes her by the arm and pulls her with him. She pulls
her arm away and loses her balance
24. You see through the door that the guy is pushing the girl down on the bed and the girl is trying to get back up while telling
him to stop.
25. You see the guy take her clothes off and have sex with her.

8. Assessing Attitudes and Actions

9. Results
• Significant change in uncomfortableness between scenes
• Significant change in doing nothing, and leaving situation between
scenes
 Associated with MVP, self-efficacy, confidence, etc.
• Graphs

10. Discussion
• As discussed by Katz and Moore (2013), educating about sexual assault through
bystander intervention programs leads to a less threatening environment and a
better understanding of how to stop sexual violence
• In order to be effective, bystanders must be trained specifically to the situation they
may encounter (Banyard, 2005)

11. Future research
• Specific training for bystanders in a sexual assault situation
 Changes throughout the script (as we found in our research)

12. References