Emma Smillie

Many individuals will dismiss the seriousness of ex-partner stalking offences, often as a result of inaccurate and problematic beliefs about the offence (stalking myths). However, to date, stalking myth acceptance measurements have only considered attitudes about stereotypical stalking (male stalking a female). The current research considered whether inaccurate and problematic perceptions of stalking were dependent on the gender and sexuality of the perpetrator, victim, and participant. Additionally, it examined whether existing stalking myth acceptance scales measuring stereotypical stalking attitudes would predict perceptions of stalking incidents that involved female stalkers and/or male victims. Participants (N= 336) completed the stalking myth acceptance scale and then responded to a series of questions measuring their perceptions towards a stalking vignette. An independent groups design was used to manipulate the gender of the stalker and victim. The need for police intervention was greatest for incidents involving a male stalker and a female victim. Female victims of male stalking were predicted as being the most fearful, whilst male victims of female stalking were rated as least likely to be fearful. Heterosexual males and participants with minority sexual orientations were also more likely to identify the perpetrator’s actions as stalking. Finally, the SMA scales predicted participants’ attitudes for stereotypical stalking cases but not for the other scenarios. The findings demonstrate that gender plays a significant role in stalking perceptions and highlights the need for more inclusive SMA measurements to consider problematic attitudes towards non-stereotypical stalking.

Two experiments explored the search for pairs of faces in a disjunctive dual-target face search (DDTFS) task for unfamiliar face targets. The distinctiveness of the target was manipulated such that both faces were typical or distinctive or contained one typical and one distinctive target. Targets were searched for in arrays of eight faces. In Experiment 1, participants completed a DDTFS block with targets learnt over the block of trials. In Experiment 2, the dual-target block was preceded by two training blocks of single-target trials. Participants also completed the upright and inverted long-form Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT+). The results showed that searching for two typical faces leads to one target being prioritised at the expense of the other. The ability to search for non-prioritised typical faces was associated with scores on the CFMT+. This association disappeared when faces were learnt before completing DDTFS. We interpret the findings in terms of the impact of typicality on face learning, individual differences in the ability to learn faces, and the involvement of capacity-limited working memory in the search for unfamiliar faces. The findings have implications for security-related situations where agents must search for multiple unfamiliar faces having been shown their images.