Oppression through acceptance? predicting rape myth acceptance and attitudes toward rape victims
Rape myths such as ‘only bad women get raped’ and ‘women ask for it’ serve to blame the victim and exonerate the rapist. As reported rapes in the United States increased at unprecedented rates in the late 1960s and the 1970s, many researchers began to investigate psychological aspects of rape, such as attitudes toward rape victims and beliefs about rape. Some studies found that likelihood to rape was correlated with men’s false beliefs that victims enjoyed it. This study examines the relationships among individuals’ acceptance of rape myths, their negative attitudes toward rape victims, and their general intergroup dominance and sex-based oppression.
