ABSTRACT
Modern bystander intervention approaches represent a comparative advance in that they have some theoretical underpinnings rooted in social psychological theory, and yet there is voluminous literature bearing on attitude and behavioral change and persuasion principles that has largely gone unnoticed by sexual assault prevention program developers. Social psychologists have spent decades identifying and applying change principles to societal ills such as prejudice, discrimination, broad bases of aggression, as well as prosocial behaviors. Decision theory holds that individuals make choices based upon the information that they have about the potential outcomes of that choice. Deterrence theory states that people make decisions that maximize benefits and minimize negative consequences because they are rational beings. Decision and deterrence theories can be used to explore possible misconceptions of rape consequences. System justification theory proposes a strategy to reduce cognitive dissonance when an individual's social system is the source of distress.
