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.
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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.
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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


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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

Our team had a new research paper entitled, "Sovereignty For Your Body: Acceptability of Sexual Victimization Risk Reduction Interventions," accepted. The paper focused on survey findings on acceptability.

Plus, our presentation entitled, "Exploring the Acceptability and Preferences of the Delivery of Alcohol Use Interventions among Indigenous College Students," has been accepted by the 2024 Society for Prevention Research Conference in Washington D.C. 

Finally, we are continuing our research! One of my mentees proposed an extension of the study for her dissertation, and it was accepted, along with a $10,000 grant to help fund it. They will be training new facilitators and starting recruitment for the Indigenized intervention this Fall! The study will be called "Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Trial." 

POC wants to extend a huge congratulations to Dr. Anderson on her new position as Assistant Professor of Health Sciences in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Missouri – Kansas City!

​Project Update: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
 
We are excited to share the latest developments in our research on non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII), a form of cyber-sexual violence. Our project seeks to establish a validated measurement tool for NCII and identify shared risk and protective factors across online and in-person sexual violence.
 
Since our last update, a team of experts was collected to provide guidance and improvement for the scale, and we have officially started qualitative data collection with participants. We have also been invited to present at the international society for research on aggression. This summer, we will share our findings with a group of leading researchers and policy folks. This avenue will help us benefit from other scholars’ expertise and start disseminating our findings immediately.
 
Additionally, we attended the National Association of Student Personnel and Administrators conference (NASPA) in March. In an effort to promote our research and increase awareness about online sexual violence, we spoke to college administrators and education policy specialists about the influence of online violence on their campuses and what efforts are being made to support their students.
 
We look forward to continuing our efforts to making college campuses a safer place for all.
Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence.

Read more about our LMB Research Fellows!

Since the last update we have finalized the structure of the Himpathy Scale by collaborating with Dr. Kate Manne, who first theorized the construct of himpathy, and we are now waiting for IRB approval of the study. Although we had hoped that by now we would have been collecting data, the IRB approval process has been slower than expected. We remain confident that data collection will occur rather quickly, given that we are using a very effective and validated online platform to do so.

To give a little more information about the scale, we have extrapolated three sub-constructs that make up the construct of himpathy and have developed items that attempt to capture those sub[1]constructs. We understand himpathy (excessive sympathy for certain perpetrators of sexual violence, mainly males perceived to be socially powerful) as including the following sub-constructs:

• Centering the perpetrator, which involves an unbalanced attention paid to the perpetrator that focuses on the preservation of the perpetrator’s wellbeing rather than the victim’s (an unconscious thought representing this might be “I want to make sure that the alleged perpetrator isn’t overly harmed by an accusation of sexual violence more than I want to address the victim’s needs”).
• Temporal sympathy, which involves thinking about the perpetrator before the victim.
• Loyalty to perpetrator/Willful ignorance, which involves a commitment (or tendency) to refuse the possibility that a certain perpetrator might have indeed committed sexual violence.

Once our study gets IRB approval, we’ll be able to test the reliability and validity of the scale.

Read more about our LMB Research Fellows!