Individual Differences and Attitudes Toward Rape: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

An overview discusses (a) the importance of rape attitudes, (b) the major rape attitude measures, and (c) the applicability of four theoretical frameworks of hostility toward women to rape attitude maintenance. Findings from 72 studies of rape attitudes and individual differences were quantitatively synthesized. The meta-analysis revealed more rape acceptance for men, older people, and people from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. For men, cognitive predispositions toward perpetrating rape were strong predictors of rape acceptance. For women, experience as and exposure to rape victims were associated with slightly less rape acceptance. Consistent with some theoretical predictions, traditional gender role beliefs, adversarial sexual beliefs, needs for power and dominance, aggressiveness and anger, and conservative political beliefs predicted rape acceptance. Implications for rape education programs and research are discussed.

“If a girl doesn't say ‘no’…”: young men, rape and claims of ‘insufficient knowledge’

“….have a strong date-rape schema' (DeSouza & Hutz, 1996: 549). Other studies suggest that students who are led to believe that other students report high levels of 'rape myth acceptance' and 'rape proclivity' (by experimental manipulation) are likely to report similarly high levels in subsequent testing (Bohner et al, 2006); that women who have met rape victims show lower levels of 'rape acceptance' than those who have not, and that men who espouse 'adversarial sexual beliefs', 'traditional gender role beliefs' and display 'aggressiveness and anger' show higher levels of 'rape acceptance' (Anderson, Copper, & Okamura, 1997); that men tend to 'attribute less blame to perpetrators of sexual assault than do women, regardless of whether the perpetrator is female or male' (Gerber & Cherneski, 2006: 35 (Shotland and Hunter, 1995: 226). Indeed, these authors appear to suggest that women literally may not know their own minds, in that '83% of token resistant women had more than one sexual intention during the token resistant episode.…”

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

“…Rape myths represent "descriptive or prescriptive beliefs about sexual aggression (i.e., about its scope, causes, context, and consequences) that serve to deny, downplay or justify sexually aggressive behavior that men commit against women" (Gerger, Kley, Bohner, & Siebler, 2007, p. 425). Evidence from a range of studies shows that individuals accepting rape myths or holding traditional gender role beliefs tend to assign less blame to the perpetrator and more blame to the victim of a sexual assault (see Anderson, Cooper, & Okamura, 1997;Ward, 1995, for reviews). Furthermore, it has been found that individuals accepting rape myths are more susceptible to contextual information, such as victim-perpetrator relationship, when rating victim and perpetrator blame.…”

“…Men are more likely to blame the alleged victim and exonerate the alleged perpetrator than women (e.g., McDonald & Kline, 2004;Wakelin & Long, 2003), and they are also more likely to endorse rape myths (Anderson et al, 1997).…”

Psychosocial Correlates of Attitudes Toward Male Sexual Violence in a Sample of Financial Crime, Property Crime, General Violent, and Homicide Offenders

“…The relationship between age and RMA for instance is inconsistent (e.g. Anderson, Cooper, & Okamura, 1997); however, results of a recent meta-analysis displayed age to be non-significantly related to RMA (Suarez & Gadalla, 2010). Further, acceptance of violence against women appears to be increased among the less educated, irrespective of their gender (WHO, 2016).…”