Gender Differences and Double Standards in Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence: Results from a Polish National Survey

This working paper examines whether the perceived severity of intimate partner violence changes when the genders of the perpetrator and victim are reversed. It draws on a nationwide Polish survey of 2,001 adults aged 18–35 who evaluated scenarios depicting physical or emotional aggression between partners. The clearest asymmetry concerned physical violence. Women rated a male-perpetrator/female-victim scenario more strongly as domestic violence than the reversed-gender scenario (M = 3.61 vs. 2.55; d = 0.92), whereas men rated the two scenarios similarly (M = 3.20 vs. 3.25). For emotional violence, there was no overall effect of the perpetrator–victim gender configuration, although women and men showed small differences in opposite directions. The paper also examines whether these judgments vary with political orientation, feminist identification, hostile and benevolent sexism, and demographic characteristics. It discusses possible explanations for the observed asymmetries, their limitations, and their potential relevance to how intimate partner violence is recognized and evaluated.