Acceptance of Gender Based Violence and Willingness to Intervene: Results from a Vignette Experiment

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a critical global public health issue and both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. In Italy, persistent challenges remain in combating GBV, with violence against women and girls as a significant concern.

This study examines perceptions of GBV and the willingness to intervene in Italy using a pre-registered factorial survey experiment. More specifically, it studies subtle forms of violence such as verbal and psychological violence and the level of their acceptance at the individual level and at the level of society. Here, we present the findings of our research, which explores GBV perceptions within a feminist perspective that emphasizes gender asymmetry in violence. The objective of this study is threefold: i) assess the perception and normality of GBV in Italy; ii) investigate the link between perceptions and willingness to intervene in violent situations; and iii) examine whether perceptions vary based on respondents' gender and past experiences of violence.

The experiment was run within a representative survey of Italian population conducted by Dynata in November 2024 on 2000 respondents. The experiment contains seven factors, and these are context (public vs. private), type of violence (no violence, non-verbal, verbal, physical), gender of the victim and offender, their relationship (acquaintance, colleague, partner, friends), victim’s perception of the situation (whether violence is acknowledged or not), and their reaction (no reaction vs. reaction). These factors provide a nuanced view of how GBV is perceived across different situations.

In conclusion, this research provides a novel study on GBV perceptions and the willingness to intervene in Italy, informing policy and program development aimed at mitigating GBV.