My research focused on understanding why people sometimes feel sympathy for perpetrators of sexual violence, especially when those perpetrators are powerful or high-status individuals. Drawing on philosopher Kate Manne’s concept of “himpathy”, I developed and validated The Himpathy Scale, a new psychological measure that assesses this form of moral and emotional bias. 

In the first study, I confirmed that higher scores on The Himpathy Scale predicted more lenient judgements toward male perpetrators and less empathy toward victims. In a second study of greater statistical power, I found that himpathy extends beyond gender: people high in himpathy also showed sympathy toward female perpetrators who were portrayed as powerful or successful, suggesting that this bias reflects a broader loyalty to social power rather than just gender bias.

Together, these studies shed light on how moral emotions and fairness can become distorted in cases of sexual violence, helping explain why some perpetrators are defended or excused while victims are doubted.

We shared our findings in the following ways: 

Oral Presentations and Lectures
Mariani, A., Peterson, Z. D., (upcoming, November 2025). The Development and Application of The Himpathy Scale for the Assessment of Bias in Sexual Assault Cases. Accepted for oral presentation at The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality 2025 Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Mariani, A., (April 2025). Himpathy in Sexual Assault Evaluations. Oral presentation at The Office for Sexual Violence Prevention and Victim Advocacy, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Mariani, A., Peterson, Z. D., (March 2025). The Himpathy Scale: Scale Development and Psychometric Properties. Oral presentation at The Association for Women in Psychology 2025 Conference, Santa Fe, NM.

Publications
This projected yielded three journal articles: two of these are in the peer-review process (have been submitted and are being reviewed), while the last one is expected to be submitted for publication in a few months upon my thesis defense.

Check out the White Papers
Himpathy_White_Paper_1_Mariani.pdf
Download File

Himpathy_White_Paper_2_Mariani.pdf
Download File

With support from the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation, we have made significant progress in advancing research on non-consensual dissemination of intimate images and campus sexual misconduct prevention. Our peer-reviewed paper, Validation of the Intimate Image Abuse Scale: A network psychometrics approach, was recently published in Psychology of Violence, with a second manuscript currently under review in Violence Against Women.

We also developed and released two white papers. The first, a scoring technical guide, is now published on the Rankin Climate website, a nationally recognized campus climate survey organization that has already begun using our scale in data collections across U.S. institutions. The second white paper will appear in the Community Psychologist Winter issue (January 2025). In addition to these publications, we presented our findings at the 2024 International Society for Research on Aggression conference in Munich, Germany.

This project has been an incredible opportunity to contribute to safer campus environments and to expand the tools available for understanding image-based sexual abuse. We are deeply grateful to the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation for supporting this important work.

Read Kamilla's White Paper 
See the Intimate Image Abuse Scale Used in Research
International Society of Research on Aggression Conference Program Sessions Booklet

Since August I have completed study 1 and am currently collecting data for study 2 of the Himpathy scale development project. In study 1, the scale was shown to have very good psychometric properties (meaning, it assesses what it’s intended to assess, and it does so with accuracy) as evidenced by its ability to predict how much a study participant will sympathize with a sexual assault perpetrator in a hypothetical scenario. However, contrary to my original hypothesis, the scale did not accurately predict other outcomes such as victim blaming and perpetrator punishment. One possible explanation is that himpathy may not be as strong of a biased reaction as the one associated with the stereotypicality of an assault (one’s preconceived notion of what a sexual assault entails), which may mask its predictive power. In study 2, which is underway, I am attempting to tease out the effects of these two biases on people’s evaluation of a sexual assault case.

My first paper (of a two-paper series) is in the process of being submitted for publication. Additionally, I plan to present findings at the upcoming Association for Women in Psychology Conference in March 2025.

Finally, I am excited to share that I am working on a grant proposal (for CDC funding) with other researchers to document the prevalence of intimate partner violence-related murder in Indiana and study developmental pathways that lead to it.

We are thrilled to share the significant progress we have made since our last update, and we remain deeply grateful for the generous support of Peace Outside Campus.

Over the past quarter, we successfully completed our quantitative data collection, marking an important milestone in our research. We are now embarking on the data analysis phase, employing a novel network psychometric approach. This cutting-edge method not only enhances the rigor of our study but also advances the field of gender-based violence research by offering innovative insights into the complex dynamics of victimization.

We are also delighted to announce that our work has been recognized by one of the major campus climate survey consortiums. This recognition has led to the implementation of our scale across campuses nationwide, with plans for it to be used over the next year. This partnership represents a tremendous opportunity to gather robust data and validate our findings on a national scale. We will continue working towards implementation alongside academic development to ensure our scale reaches as many people as possible.

In addition, we are excited to report that our qualitative paper is officially under peer review for publication. This milestone reflects the significance of our findings and the hard work of our team in advancing knowledge on online sexual aggression.
​
We are profoundly grateful to Peace Outside Campus for enabling us to pursue this important work and to our participants, whose insights continue to inspire and shape our research. We look forward to providing further updates as we continue to make strides in improving campus climates and advancing understanding of online sexual aggression.

Andrea Mariani
Project Update: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases


​​The last few months were fruitful for our research. We collected data from approximately 1,200 participants and completed the analyses required for our scale validation. Our results show that the himpathy scale has good internal and external validity. In other words, the scale is effective at assessing himpathy, rather than a related construct (such as sexist beliefs, for example). We are in the process of running the last analysis, which will give us information about the predictive power of our scale. Specifically, we are trying to understand whether a higher score on the himpathy scale predicts how one views allegations of sexual assault.

The followings are the questions that will be answered by such analysis:

• Does a higher score on the himpathy scale predict more victim blaming?
• Does a higher score on the himpathy scale predict less punishment for the perpetrator?
• Importantly, are these phenomena dependent on the gender of both the perpetrator and victim?
• Does the himpathy scale do a better job at predicting the outcomes above compared to​ other related scales?

In addition to this last analysis, we have started to write the first of two papers that will describe our study. This first paper focuses on the theory of himpathy and the evidence of the construct in the extant literature, and it highlights the need for a measurement tool. Our second paper will be focused on the actual study.
​
My plans for the upcoming year include applying for a conference where to present our results, finishing to write our theoretical paper and submitting it for publication.

Kamilla Bonnesen
​Project Update: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence


​
We are thrilled to share the exciting progress we’ve made over the summer with our research project, and we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of Peace Outside Campus and our dedicated participants.
 
Over the summer, our team successfully completed the qualitative analysis phase of our research. We had the privilege of presenting our findings at the International Society for Research on Aggression Biennial Conference, where we were met with a full conference room and received invaluable feedback from research peers and experts in the field of online sexual aggression. It was incredibly validating to hear from our qualitative participants, who expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to have their experiences represented and acknowledged as harmful behavior through our scale. Their positive responses reaffirmed the importance of our work and motivated us even further.
 
As we move into the fall semester, we are eagerly preparing to collect our quantitative data and embark on the second round of analyses. We are also excited to announce our collaboration with Rankin Climate, a renowned company specializing in sexual misconduct campus climate surveys. This partnership will allow us to disseminate our scale across the campus community this fall, ensuring comprehensive and representative data collection.
 
In addition, we are honored to have Dr. Katherine Masyn join our team for the data analysis phase. Dr. Masyn’s expertise will enable us to utilize the most advanced modeling tools currently available, greatly enhancing the depth and accuracy of our research.
 
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Peace Outside Campus for making all of this possible. Your support has been instrumental in advancing this important work. We are also profoundly grateful to our participants, whose insights and feedback have been both inspiring and essential to the development of our research.
 
We look forward to sharing more updates as we continue to progress, and we are enthusiastic about the impact this work will have on improving campus climates.
 
Thank you once again for your continued support!
 
Warm regards, 
Kamilla Bonnesen