One-fourth of all online comments at the end of news articles about sexual assault and rape include victim-blaming statements, new research out of the University of Southern California shows.

The study examined 52 articles and found that only one did not contain comments offering support for the accused perpetrator, the study said. Victim-blaming statements appeared in 1,097 of the 4,239 comments ― or just over 25 percent of them.

“I was surprised that so many people were so mean about these victims,” Kristen Zaleski, associate professor at USC’s School of Social Work, told The Huffington Post. “Even knowing what I know about rape culture, I didn’t expect so much hate and judgment and discriminatory attitudes and othering ― there was a lot of othering.”

Branded as a “first-of-its-kind study,” the researchers examined comments posted to rape-related articles published in the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times between December 2014 and March 2015. In total, they looked at 52 newspaper articles covering everything from Bill Cosby’s accusers coming forward to the fallout from Rolling Stone’s flawed article on campus rape. 

Read more on Huffington Post.