UC Santa Barbara

How does a woman’s racial background affect her perceived credibility when she discloses an experience of sexual victimization? Prior research has found women of color report more unsupportive reactions to their disclosures, but studies have not directly examined perceived credibility outside of a legal context. Using an experimental study depicting a hypothetical sexual assault, I test a potential mechanism to explain disbelief in sexual assault survivors: survivor race. In a 1x3 between-subjects vignette study, participants were randomly assigned to read and respond to a hypothetical woman friend who was either Asian, Black, or white. I find that, on average, participants evaluated Black survivors as less credible than non-Black survivors on the qualitative, but not quantitative, measures. I also find that men participants, regardless of whether the survivor was an Asian, Black, or white woman, evaluated the survivor as less credible than women and non-binary respondents did on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Taken together, the present research highlights the impact of survivor race as well as observer gender in evaluations of survivor credibility.