Purpose

In women, having a history of sexual victimization has been linked to certain personality traits (e.g. low levels of assertiveness) and nonverbal behaviors (e.g. fewer head movements). The majority of research in this area, however, has considered how self-reported personality traits and gait relate to victimization. As such, the present study aims to examine how observers’ perceptions of personality impact judgments of targets’ vulnerability to sexual and violent victimization, and how the nonverbal behaviors used when making these judgments may vary depending on perceived personality traits.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 309 participants watched eight audio-less videos of a woman speaking. Following each video, participants rated each woman on varying personality and emotionality traits, as well as their perception of how vulnerable the woman was to future victimization, and how they came to their decision according to a number of predetermined nonverbal cues.

Findings

Consistent with previous research, observers’ perceptions of sexual vulnerability were negatively related to perceptions of targets’ self-esteem and confidence, and positively related to anxiety. While violent vulnerability displayed a similar pattern of results, the nonverbal behaviors cited during the vulnerability appraisal process varied between personality traits. Though few results emerged within the latter query, anxiety exhibited the majority of all significant relationships, including being positively associated with facial expressions and upper and lower body movements.

Originality/value

Results suggest that different behavioral and personality interventions (e.g. increasing self-esteem) may serve to increase self-efficacy, autonomy and confidence, as well as help women feel more in control of their destiny and interpersonal communications.

中文翻译：

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感知到的人格特征和女性受害易感性的假设

目的

在女性中，有过性受害史与某些人格特征（例如低水平的自信）和非语言行为（例如较少的头部运动）有关。然而，该领域的大多数研究都考虑了自我报告的人格特征和步态如何与受害相关。因此，本研究旨在检验观察者对人格的看法如何影响对目标易受性和暴力侵害的判断，以及在做出这些判断时使用的非语言行为如何因感知到的人格特征而异。

设计/方法/方法

共有 309 名参与者观看了 8 个女性讲话的无音频视频。在每个视频之后，参与者根据不同的个性和情感特征对每位女性进行评分，以及他们对女性未来受害的脆弱程度的看法，以及他们如何根据一些预定的非语言线索做出决定。

发现

与之前的研究一致，观察者对性脆弱的感知与对目标自尊和自信的感知呈负相关，与焦虑呈正相关。虽然暴力脆弱性显示出类似的结果模式，但脆弱性评估过程中引用的非语言行为因人格特征而异。尽管在后一个查询中几乎没有出现任何结果，但焦虑表现出所有重要关系的大部分，包括与面部表情和上下身体运动呈正相关。

原创性/价值

结果表明，不同的行为和人格干预（例如增加自尊）可能有助于提高自我效能、自主性和自信心，并帮助女性更好地控制自己的命运和人际交往。