Citation

Rollero C, Tartaglia S. Sex Cult. 2019; 23(1): 209-219.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12119-018-9549-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Rape myths are false beliefs about sexual violence that encourage blaming the victim and exonerating the offender. Within the framework of the Ambivalent Sexism Theory, we tested a model investigating the effect of each dimension of ambivalent sexism on the endorsement of each rape myth, and in turn the effect of each myth on the attribution of responsibility (to the perpetrator vs. to the victim) in case of sexual violence. Participants were 264 students (54.9% females).

RESULTS showed that hostile sexism toward women fostered the endorsement of each myth, whereas benevolence toward men enhanced the myth 'He didn't mean to' and this increased the perception of the victim's responsibility. Implications in developing interventions to de-construct rape myths are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Rape myths; Sexist attitudes; Structural equation modeling; Victim blame