The Impact of Contextual Ambiguity on the Interpretation and Recall of Child Sexual Abuse Media Reports

Abstract

Previous research indicates that approximately 40% of child sexual abuse media reports areambiguous in the sense that information relating to the nature of abuse, the identity of the perpetrator,and/or the location of abuse is not specified. This research examined the impact of suchcontextual ambiguity on the recall and interpretation of child sexual abuse media reports. The189 respondents were recruited through media appeals and presented with one of three versionsof a child sexual abuse press report (stereotype congruent, stereotype incongruent, or contextuallyambiguous). Respondents were asked to provide written descriptions of their thoughts andfeelings about abuse incidents, which were analyzed for attributional content. Recall wasassessed after a 2-week interval. Results indicate that stereotypes affect the recall and interpretationof child sexual abuse media reports in the presence of contextually ambiguous individuatinginformation but not in the presence of nonstereotypic information that is contextuallyunambiguous.