Expecting to Meet a Rape Victim Affects Women’s Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Rape Myth Acceptance

Abstract

Research has shown that women’s level of rape myth acceptance (RMA) moderates the impact of rape salience on their self-esteem. Conceptually replicating previous studies where rape salience was operationalized by presenting newspaper articles, the present study featured a realistic expectation of meeting a rape victim. Female students ( N= 82) who were either low or high in RMA expected a conversation with another woman about one of three topics: studying, the other woman’s illness (leukemia), or the other woman’s experience of having been raped. Then their collective self-esteem, individual self-esteem, and affect were assessed. In line with predictions, low-RMA women reported lower self-esteem in the rape condition than in the studying condition, whereas high-RMA participants showed an opposite effect. Although affect was generally lower in the rape condition than in the neutral condition, this effect was significantly more pronounced for low-RMA than high-RMA women. Results for the leukemia condition differed from those in the rape condition, confirming the content-specificity of the moderating effect of RMA.

The acceptance of modern myths about sexual aggression scale: development and validation in German and English

“…These results support the proposed anxiety-buffering effect of modern myths about sexual aggression. They further suggest that this effect may be mediated by chronic differences in the construal of rape victims as dissimilar to oneself, as proposed by Bohner [1998;Bohner and Lampridis, 2004].…”

“…Women who endorse rape myths believe that rape only happens to a certain type of women (e.g., who behave ''inappropriately''), whom they perceive as dissimilar from themselves, whereas women who reject rape myths construe rape as a potential threat to all women, including themselves. Supporting these assumptions, several studies have shown that women low in RMA who were exposed to situations in which rape was salient subsequently reported lower self-esteem and more negative affect, whereas women high in RMA who were exposed to the same situations remained largely unaffected [Bohner and Lampridis, 2004;Bohner et al, 1999Bohner et al, , 1993.…”

Why Do Women Endorse Hostile and Benevolent Sexism? The Role of Salient Female Subtypes and Internalization of Sexist Contents

“…As a result, they might endorse hostile sexist beliefs in general by agreeing that these contents accurately reflect their thoughts about non-traditional subtypes. In addition, these women may even benefit personally from a downward comparison to the subtype (see Bohner and Lampridis 2004). Similarly, it is possible that women reject benevolent sexism for themselves, but think about traditional subtypes when completing the benevolent sexism scale and attribute the benevolent contents to these subtypes (e.g., "I should not be cherished and protected by men but housewives should be cherished and protected").…”

A systematic literature review of “rape victims” versus “rape survivors”: Implications for theory, research, and practice

“…Overwhelmingly, such correlates have included beliefs related to other types of violence, conflict, and dominance, including the beliefs that men's and women's relationships are inherently adversarial, acceptance of interpersonal violence, sex role stereotyping (e.g., Burt, 1980;Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984;Ward, 1988), negative attitudes toward women (e.g., Deitz et al, 1982), conservative political beliefs, religiousness (e.g., Bell, Kuriloff, Lottes, Nathanson, et al, 1992;Fischer, 1986;Weir & Wrightsman, 1990), attraction to violent sexuality (e.g., the belief that "sex is more fun if the woman fights a little," Monto & Hotaling, 2001, p. 283), anticipation of and fantasies about sexual dominance (Chiroro, Bohner, Viki, & Jarvis, 2004), and support for masculine norms reflecting power over women (Locke & Mahalik, 2005; see Anderson et al, 1997, for a meta-analytic review of correlates of rape-related attitudes and beliefs; also see Abbey & Harnish, 1995;Bohner & Lampridis, 2004;Lopez, George, & Davis, 2007). Perhaps most alarmingly, individuals' rape-related beliefs are also associated with their higher levels of rape proclivity, or their self-reported likelihood to rape (Ceniti & Malamuth, 1984;Malamuth, 1989aMalamuth, , 1989bOsland, Fitch, & Willis, 1996;Quackenbush, 1989; also see Bohner, Siebler, & Schmelcher, 2006).…”