Excusing and justifying rape cognitions in judgements of sexually-coercive dating scenarios

Abstract

According to recent analyses, Bumby’s RAPE scale of cognitive distortions about women and sexual assault is comprised of two factors. Excusing rape serves to reduce abusers’ culpability for their offending, and ascribe blame to victims, while justifying rape is associated with a sense of sexual entitlement. The distinct effects of these factors on rape judgements have not yet been investigated. We examined whether these distortion clusters differentially predicted judgements of perpetrator innocence after priming cues related to each of them. We used a cross-sectional design (N = 217) to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that excusing rape distortions predicted exaggerated innocence judgements when the victim paid the bill on a first date (potentially indicative of romantic or sexual interest). However, contrary to expectations there was no evidence that participants justified rape when the perpetrator paid the bill. Implications for conceptualising the functions of cognitive distortions are discussed.