The Big Role of Authority, Sanctity, and Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression in Blaming the Rape Victims: A Study on Culture of Honor

According to Moral Foundation Theory, people rely on five intuitive-based foundations in their moral judgments. These foundations are divided into two clusters: Individualizing foundations (Care and Fairness) and Binding foundations (Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity). In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between moral foundations and AMMSA with victim-blaming and the moderating role of social desirability in Iranian Culture. Consistent with previous findings, victim-blaming was best predicted by AMMSA. Regarding moral foundations, victim-blaming was positively predicted by Authority and Sanctity and negatively predicted by Fairness. Although the best predictor of victim-blaming was AMMSA, Authority and Sanctity had a marginal difference with AMMSA in predicting victim-blaming. Analyses also showed that higher levels of Social Desirability moderated the Care foundation. Moreover, while there was no difference in victim-blaming among men and women, men were more accepting of AMMSA. With attention to previous literature, findings are discussed to gain a better understanding of the interaction between moral foundations and victim-blaming in various cultural contexts.