Two hypothetical scenario studies examined how situational, perpetrator, and observer factors affect blame towards rape victims. In Study 1, Spanish high school students (N=206) read about a rape committed by a boyfriend or husband who was described as benevolently sexist or not. Study 2 (N=201 British college students) replicated and extended Study 1 by adding a condition in which the rapist was described as a hostile sexist. In both studies, participants' benevolent sexism scores predicted more victim blame when the rapist was described as a husband (but not a boyfriend) who held benevolently sexist attitudes. Study 2 showed that participants' hostile sexism scores predicted more victim blame when the rapist was described as a hostile sexist.

Two studies were conducted with college students to validate the Spanish-language version of the “Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression” scale (AMMSA) (Gerger, Kley, Bohner & Siebler, 2007). This scale assesses modern myths about sexual aggression in a subtle way. In Study 1, 305 students completed the Spanish AMMSA and other scales with related content. In Study 2, 263 participants completed the Spanish AMMSA and answered questions about a hypothetical sexual assault perpetrated by a young man against a female acquaintance. The Spanish AMMSA showed high internal consistency and adequate evidence of validity in both studies. Compared to traditional scales of rape myth acceptance, mean scores on the AMMSA were higher and their distributions more closely approximated normality. These findings suggest that the Spanish version of the AMMSA scale is a useful instrument to study the social perception of sexual aggression.

The aim of this study is to explore the effect of exposure to sexist humor about women on men's self-reported rape proclivity. Earlier studies have shown that exposure to this type of humor increases rape proclivity and that funniness responses to jokes are a key element to consider. However, the role of aversiveness responses has not been studied. In a between-group design, 109 male university students are randomly exposed to sexist or nonsexist jokes. Participants are asked to rate the jokes according to their degree of funniness and aversiveness. Participants' levels of hostile and benevolent sexism were also measured. Results about the relationship between sexist attitudes and sexist humor and the relationship between sexist attitudes and rape proclivity are consistent with those of earlier studies. However, exposure to sexist humor affects rape proclivity only when aversiveness shown to this type of humor is low. The results are discussed in the light of the prejudiced norm theory.

Cyberbullying is attracting social, political, and academic interest as the use of electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones by young people has increased dramatically. However, little is known about the factors involved in their perpetration, particularly in the context of college students' dating relationships. The aim of this study is to examine the involvement of college students in cyberbullying in the context of their dating relationships and to explore the impact of sexism on males' cyberbullying of their girlfriends. Participants are 219 undergraduate students from a university in the south of Spain. Results showed that 48.4% of participants reported having bullied their partners during the last year via mobile phone and 37.5% via Internet. Males reported a greater extent of cyberbullying of their girlfriends through both means. Regression analyses indicated that males' levels of hostile sexism are related to males' cyberbullying of their girlfriends. These findings suggest a modernization in the forms of violence toward women among college students and also expand current literature by revealing the influence of participants' hostile sexism on this type of cyber aggression against women in dating relationships.

This study tested the effects on social perceptions of sexual marital rights and duties of ambivalent sexist ideology and information about the benevolent sexist ideology of a husband, portrayed in a hypothetical marital vignette. In addition, the perception of whether hypothetical forced sex between husband and wife is considered rape was explored. For one half of the participants (college students), the husband was presented as high in benevolent sexism (BS); and for the other half, no information about his ideology was given. Results showed that participants in the first group ranked sexual marital rights (for him) and duties (for her) more highly, and regarded forced sex as rape to a lesser extent. Positive relationships were also found between participants' BS and these ratings. Moreover, participants' perceptions of marital rights and duties played a mediating role in the relationship between their BS and their perception of forced penetration as rape. Finally, an interaction was found between participants' and husbands' BS in the perception of marital rights and duties: The influence of participants' BS was higher when the husband was presented as a benevolent sexist man. Results highlight the role of sexist attitudes in the interpretation of marital rape.

Sexual assault affects a large proportion of women in the world. Although most rapes are committed by one man, the act itself may be influenced by many (e.g., the peer group). Hostile sexism (HS) has repeatedly been associated with men's rape proclivity, but the influence exerted by the HS of the peer group on rape proclivity has not been investigated. In this study, we explored the impact of perceived male peer support to HS on participants' rape proclivity. A sample of Spanish undergraduate students from a university in the south of Spain ( N = 134) completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Immediately afterwards, they received feedback on the supposed sexist responses of a peer group (high vs. low in HS); we kept the benevolent sexism (BS) of the peer group at medium levels. Next, we assessed participants' rape proclivity using acquaintance rape scenarios. Results showed an interaction between participants' own levels of HS and information about the HS of the peer group. Men high in HS reported higher rape proclivity in the high-HS peer-group condition than in the low-HS peer-group condition. By contrast, information on the peer group did not affect self-reported rape proclivity of men low in HS. Results also corroborated the relationship between participants' levels of HS and rape proclivity, and expanded the literature by revealing an unexpected influence of participants' BS on rape proclivity.

This article describes three studies in which we explored the influence of the sexist ideology attributed to the perpetrator on women's responses to hypothetical acts of sexual assault perpetrated by male intimate partners. In Study 1 (n = 83), college women read three sexual assault scenarios in the context of an intimate relationship. The male partner's sexist ideology (benevolent, hostile, or control) was manipulated within participants. Women showed less active responses when the partner had been described as a benevolent sexist man. This effect was replicated in Study 2 (n = 103), which showed a relationship between women's less active responses and the belief that benevolent sexist men are very attracted to and interested in their partners. Study 3 (n = 130) demonstrated experimentally that women's responses are less active when they are exposed to information that indicates that the perpetrator is both high in benevolent sexism and highly attracted to his victim than when the latter information is not provided. Results suggest that sexist ideology and particularly benevolent sexism-attributed to the perpetrator in this case-is highly important in women's reactions to acts of sexual violence perpetrated by male intimate partners.

Objective: The virulence of COVID-19 has been particularly problematic in countries such as Spain. This led the government to decide that the population should be locked down at home to reduce the spread of the disease and avoid the collapse of the health system. Considering this, this study analyzed the changes in intimate relationships that occurred during lockdown in terms of dyadic adjustment, conflict, and quality of the relationship, as well as their relationship with anxiety symptoms. Method: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study with adults (N = 342) aged 20-67 years who lived in Spain. Each participant completed self-report measures of anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory state and trait subscales), dyadic adjustment (Dyadic Adjustment Scale), relationship conflict and quality, and sociodemographic variables. Results: The results showed significant levels of state anxiety, which was associated with poorer dyadic adjustment and a decrease in the perceived quality of relationships since the start of lockdown. Increased partner conflict seems to be an important predictor of dyadic adjustment and relationship quality during social isolation. Conclusions: This study suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of the population, especially women. This finding is closely associated with difficulties with one's cohabiting partner (e.g., worse dyadic adjustment), but the most determining factor seems to be the previous state of the relationship. Clinical Impact StatementResearch on COVID-19 and mental health has focused on exploring the state of mental health of individuals at a given point in time, without a baseline of how they were before the pandemic. In this study, we assessed anxiety as a personality trait (trait anxiety), asking participants to base their responses on how they usually felt before the onset of the pandemic (i.e., baseline). A comparison between these results and the anxiety experienced in the first wave of the pandemic (state anxiety) confirmed an increase in anxiety-related symptoms in a significant number of participants, predicting worse dyadic adjustment and a deterioration in the quality of their relationships.