The Relationship Between General Belief in a Just World and Rape Victim Blame: The Roles of Gender-Specific System Justification and Hostile Sexism

General belief in a just world (GBJW) is typically believed to exacerbate observers’ rape victim blame. However, research on the psychological processes underlying this relationship is limited. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between GBJW and rape victim blame in a Chinese community sample, investigating whether gender-specific system justification (GSSJ) and hostile sexism (HS) mediate this relationship and whether these mediating effects show gender differences. We proposed and tested a conditional process model. A sample of 249 participants were asked to read a vignette describing a male-on-female rape, after which they completed measures of rape victim blame, GBJW, GSSJ, HS, and social desirability. The results indicated that GBJW positively predicted rape victim blame overall, with GSSJ mediating this relationship. GBJW promoted rape victim blame by increasing GSSJ, and the underlying mechanism showed a stronger effect among women than men. In addition, the relationship between GBJW and rape victim blame was suppressed by HS only among men, with higher levels of GBJW associated with lower levels of HS, thereby reducing male observers’ rape victim blame. These findings suggest that the psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of GBJW on rape victim blame differ based on gender, highlighting the importance of considering the gender of observers when examining this relationship.