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