I have a suspicion that this “effect” is exaggerated by the stickiness of abusive relationships—once a woman, by ill luck or trickery, does fall into a relationship with a jerk, she may find it difficult, even difficult in the sense of “serious physical danger”, to shake permanently loose of it. The emotional reaction of “why would a woman go with that guy? he’s such a jerk” is ignorance of how abuse works and “because she likes jerks” is a hypothesis being privileged because it reduces the feeling of dissonance.
I have a suspicion that this “effect” is exaggerated by the stickiness of abusive relationships—once a woman, by ill luck or trickery, does fall into a relationship with a jerk, she may find it difficult, even difficult in the sense of “serious physical danger”, to shake permanently loose of it. The emotional reaction of “why would a woman go with that guy? he’s such a jerk” is ignorance of how abuse works and “because she likes jerks” is a hypothesis being privileged because it reduces the feeling of dissonance.