I agree that this is probably a reason for the greater harm to women, but I don’t think it gets to the heart of it.
Suppose that instead of rape, our culture portrayed some benign, non-sexual experience as deeply harmful. Say, being exposed to the color orange as a kid. In that case, would you predict men or women to be more harmed by having seen orange? If you predict women (as I would), then the explanation has to be more general than evolved attitudes towards sex.
My theory is that it comes down to influenceability. When an authority figure says that something is true, a man is more likely to note that he must act like it’s true, but reserve an inner skepticism; whereas a woman is more likely to accept it wholeheartedly.
For example, it’s easier to imagine a man proactively (without outside influence)...
I know for sure that women are higher in neuroticism. I’m not sure about influenceability, are they really higher on this? In any case, it seems to me that the neuroticism difference can account for this effect all by itself, assuming that the evo-psych explanation by lc isn’t quite correct. (Personally, I feel like Anna makes good points against it but I also wouldn’t totally rule out the evo-psych explanation.)
Edit: And on influenceability, you could argue that men are influenced to feel worse about being abused because of how people think men should be (strong, in control, not victims).
I agree that this is probably a reason for the greater harm to women, but I don’t think it gets to the heart of it.
Suppose that instead of rape, our culture portrayed some benign, non-sexual experience as deeply harmful. Say, being exposed to the color orange as a kid. In that case, would you predict men or women to be more harmed by having seen orange? If you predict women (as I would), then the explanation has to be more general than evolved attitudes towards sex.
My theory is that it comes down to influenceability. When an authority figure says that something is true, a man is more likely to note that he must act like it’s true, but reserve an inner skepticism; whereas a woman is more likely to accept it wholeheartedly.
For example, it’s easier to imagine a man proactively (without outside influence)...
doubting his religion
doubting the benefits of hand-washing
doubting that perpetual motion is impossible
I know for sure that women are higher in neuroticism. I’m not sure about influenceability, are they really higher on this? In any case, it seems to me that the neuroticism difference can account for this effect all by itself, assuming that the evo-psych explanation by lc isn’t quite correct. (Personally, I feel like Anna makes good points against it but I also wouldn’t totally rule out the evo-psych explanation.)
Edit: And on influenceability, you could argue that men are influenced to feel worse about being abused because of how people think men should be (strong, in control, not victims).