Abstract
The relationship between rape myth acceptance, gender-specific system justification (GSJ), and bystander intention to intervene has often been studied on a one-dimensional basis, without separating the four dimensions of the acceptance of rape myths. The current study analyzes the relationship between the acceptance of rape myths, GSJ, and bystander intention to intervene, and explores whether the relationships operate differently for men and women. The sample was 3,966 university students: 2,962 from the University of Turin and 1,004 from the Politecnico of Turin; 71.2% women and 28.8% men; average age of 22.61 years. After descriptive analyses, independent sample T-test, and bivariate correlations, a model where the acceptance of four rape myths (“She asked for it”; “He didn’t mean to”; “It wasn’t really rape”; “She lied”) mediated the relationship between GSJ and bystander intention to intervene was tested on the whole sample and then separately on women and men. A bootstrapping procedure was applied. Our data show that for both men and women, GSJ was related to the four rape myths, whereas women and men differed on the relationship between acceptance of rape myths and bystander intention to intervene: only the dimension “She asked for it” was significant for both groups; the dimension “It wasn’t really rape” was significant only for the men. Focusing on the differences in women and men regarding acceptance of rape myths can be fruitful for a theoretical deepening of the field and may inform the development of more successful prevention programs.
Highlights
Questions about sexual violence ask why there is a proclivity to underestimate the phenomenon, why it is perceived as a “private” issue, and, perhaps most importantly, why it is sometimes justified by either the perpetrator’s psychological fragility or assignment of the blame to the victim (VicHealth, 2014; Powell and Webster, 2018)
The Likert scale ranges from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 5 (“strongly agree”) and measures factors that express the four myths: (1) “She asked for it”; (2) “He didn’t mean to”; (3) “It wasn’t really rape”; and (4) “She lied”. – The bystander intention to intervene scale
The male group showed higher agreement with gender-specific system justification (GSJ) and with the four rape myths but lower bystander intention to intervene than the female group
Summary
Questions about sexual violence ask why there is a proclivity to underestimate the phenomenon, why it is perceived as a “private” issue, and, perhaps most importantly, why it is sometimes justified by either the perpetrator’s psychological fragility or assignment of the blame to the victim (VicHealth, 2014; Powell and Webster, 2018). McMahon and Farmer (cit.) examined four forms of rape myths: “She asked for it”; “He didn’t mean to”; “It wasn’t really rape”; and “She lied,” Two assign blame to the victim: “She asked for it” and “She lied.”. The two other rape myths express an attitude to attenuate the cause and the consequences of rape: “He didn’t mean to” implies, for example, that male sexual instinct cannot always be kept under control, so if a man commits rape, he is not really at fault. Endorsement of rape myths serves to justify and minimize the harm of sexual abuse Such minimization reduces the social stigma of sexual violence and renders measures against it less effective (Hinck and Thomas, 1999; Payne et al, 1999; Edwards et al, 2011). Rape myth acceptance is associated with a lower tendency to disclose sexual assault and, inevitably, with a lower propensity to intervene against it (McMahon, 2010), partly because the assault is not recognized as illegitimate
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