Citation

Cotton A, Farley M, Baron R. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 2002; 32(9): 1790-1796.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00259.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Rape myths and prostitution myths are a component of culturally supported attitudes that normalize violence against women. Prostitution myths justify the existence of prostitution, promote misinformation about prostitution, and contribute to a social climate that exploits and harms not only prostituted women, but all women. This study investigated the relationship between prostitution myth acceptance and rape myth acceptance in a sample of university undergraduates. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with prostitution myth acceptance among 783 university undergraduates from California, Iowa, Oregon, and Texas. College men were significantly more accepting of prostitution myths than were college women. Results suggest that acceptance of prostitution myths are a component of attitudes that justify violence against women.