The IWA lab task consists 10 min audio recorded story, portraying a romantic relationship between two women (Lori and Sophia), in which one of them (Lori - the perpetrator) is being aggressive towards the other (Sophia - the victim). The story was carefully designed to align with ethical considerations - it is non-graphic, contains no severe acts of violence, and mostly describes a romantic power dynamic which may be considered abusive or toxic. The three groups of participants will receive different instructions before listening to the audio recording. The 'identification with the victim' group will be asked to try to identify, understand and adopt the point of view of Sophia (the victim)

The IWA lab task consists 10 min audio recorded story, portraying a romantic relationship between two women (Lori and Sophia), in which one of them (Lori - the perpetrator) is being aggressive towards the other (Sophia - the victim). The story was carefully designed to align with ethical considerations - it is non-graphic, contains no severe acts of violence, and mostly describes a romantic power dynamic which may be considered abusive or toxic. The three groups of participants will receive different instructions before listening to the audio recording. The control group will be asked to pay attention to the story's details and to try and remember as much details as they can.

Doubt regarding judgments and assessments about the characteristics of the abuse will be assessed via The Interpersonal Trauma Doubt Scale (ITDS). This questionnaire comprises of 10 items tapping one's doubts concerning judgments regarding oneself, the perpetrator, and the abuse.

A short form of the DERS is a self-report scale consists of 18-Items, rated on a 5-point scale that measures emotion regulation in the following subscales: 1. Nonacceptance of emotional responses 2. Difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior 3. Impulse control difficulties 4. Lack of emotional awareness 5. Limited access to emotion regulation strategies 6. Lack of emotional clarity. The DERS has good internal consistency and good test-retest reliability.

The MVQ is a 54-item questionnaire covering a range of cognitions (beliefs, rules, distortions and attributions) that may provide support, justifications or injunctions to violence. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 to 5. The MVQ comprises two subscales: 1) Machismo (42 items) relates to embarrassment over backing down, justification of violence in response to threat and attack, violence as part of being male and strong and the weakness associated with fear and non-violence; 2) Acceptance of violence (14 items) including overt enjoyment and acceptance of violence (in the media and in sport) and injunctions against or rejection of violence as an acceptable behaviour. For the purpose of the study only the Acceptance of violence subscale will be utilized.

RMET is a social cognition measure that examines a participant's ability to identify complex emotions and mental states. Participants will be presented with 36 images of human eyes and will be asked to choose out of 4 words the one that best describes the emotion the person in the image is experiencing. Social cognition will be measured by the number of overall correct answers in the task as well as the response time for correct answers.

The IAT is a computerized screening test developed by Greenwald and is designed to examine hidden attitudes. A new version was created for the purpose of the current study to examine attitudes towards the characters which are part of the IWA task (Lori, the perpetrator and Sophia the victim. These attitudes will be assessed by measuring automatic links between the characters (for example "Lori" versus "Sophia ") and attributions ("good" or "bad"). The test has seven stages in which the participants are required to classify words into different categories as quickly as possible By pressing the right ("k")/left ("D") key, the reaction time and the number of errors in the cross-category steps will reflect the strength of the implicit beliefs about the characters which are part of the IWA task.

The IAT is a computerized screening test developed by Greenwald and is designed to examine hidden attitudes. A new version was created for the purpose of the current study to examine attitudes towards the legitimacy of harm/violent behavior. These attitudes will be assessed by measuring automatic links between certain concepts (for example "abuse" versus "love") and attributions (for example "permitted" or "forbidden"). The test has seven stages in which the participants are required to classify words into different categories as quickly as possible By pressing the right ("D")/left ("K") key, the reaction time and the number of errors in the cross-category steps will reflect the strength of the implicit beliefs regarding the legitimacy of harm/violent behavior.

Dissociation will be measured by the DES-II, a 28-item self-report questionnaire that measures the frequency of dissociative experiences. The total dissociative score is computed as the mean of items, ranging from 0 to 100. The DES-II has been shown to have high validity and reliability.

The SS is a 15-item questionnaire on a four-point Likert scale that measured altruism by quantifying the tendency to ignore one's own needs and interests and serve the needs of others. The items ask about sacrifice for family and others, self-denial, and lack of self-interest.

A subjective feeling of a disturbance or disruption of the body's boundaries will assess via 17 items self-report questionnaire, divided into two scales: one refers to the subject's sense of physical separation from his environment and is called "The barrier subscale" (for example: "I do not feel tangibly separated from the reality surrounding me"), the second is a permeability scale (known as: "The permeability subscale"), and refers to the feeling of physical vulnerability (for example: "Sometimes I imagine/experience my body as a wide open window"). Subjects will be asked to answer on a scale of 1-5, according to their degree of identification with the physical sensation or physical experience presented in the item.

Participants with a history of interpersonal abuse will be identified via the CTQ-SF. For the purpose of this study, only 15 items referring to emotional, physical, or sexual abuse were utilized. Based on previous research, participants were classified as having a history of childhood abuse if they scored above any of the following cut-off scores: for physical abuse (>8), sexual abuse (>6), and emotional abuse (>9).

The characteristics of the continuous assault will be examined using a questionnaire that was designed for the purpose of this study. Participants will be asked to indicate which assault they have experienced by marking from an existing list with an open option of adding additional events. The questionnaire also includes additional questions about the characteristics of the assault, such as at what age it occurred, how long it lasted, and questions about the nature of the relationship with the perpetrator. Further questions will refer to the behavior of the perpetrator and the reaction of the participant at the time of the assault.

We will ask participants 3 Open questions on their experience during the manipulation: 1) What did you feel while listening to the audio recorded story? 2) How do you feel about Lori? 3) 2. How do you feel about Sophia?

A brief demographic questionnaire that assessed gender, age, education, and relational status. The questionnaire will also include questions about treatment, such as whether the participant is currently receiving psychological or psychopharmacological treatment, the type of treatment or medication, and whether they have received a psychiatric diagnosis. Additionally, participants will be asked to describe the chronic traumatic event they have experienced.