Beliefs on Sexual Violence in the Context of System Justification Theory: The Role of Hostile Sexism and Beliefs in Biological Origins of Gender Differences

Estimates suggest that around 20% of women may have experienced rape. Various misconceptions about rape (i.e., rape myths) are closely related to victim blaming. In our studies we tested the link between system justification, beliefs in biological origins of gender differences, ambivalent sexism and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social justice research 2021-09, Vol.34 (3), p.235-254
Main Authors: Łyś, Agnieszka E., Studzińska, Anna, Bargiel-Matusiewicz, Kamilla
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquaintances
Ambivalence
Anthropology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Beliefs
Experimental design
Gender differences
Justification
Misconceptions
Mythology
Personality and Social Psychology
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Rape
Research design
Sex crimes
Sexism
Sexual assault
Sexual violence
Social explanations
Social origins
Social Policy
Sociology
Students
Violence
Women
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Summary:Estimates suggest that around 20% of women may have experienced rape. Various misconceptions about rape (i.e., rape myths) are closely related to victim blaming. In our studies we tested the link between system justification, beliefs in biological origins of gender differences, ambivalent sexism and beliefs concerning sexual violence. Study 1 was conducted among 433 Polish students. The sequential mediation analysis suggests that system justification predicts the level of rape myth acceptance through beliefs in biological origins of gender differences and then hostile (but not benevolent) sexism. In Study 2, conducted among 197 Polish students, we tested the relationship between beliefs in biological origins of gender differences and beliefs concerning sexual violence using experimental design. Contrary to our expectations, students who read the text about social origins of gender differences perceived the survivor of a hypothetical acquaintance rape as less credible, and proposed a lower sentence for a stranger rape perpetrator, compared to participants who read about biological origins of gender differences. We suspect that this is due to experiencing reactance when confronted with social explanations of gender differences. We discuss implications for research and policy.
ISSN:0885-7466
1573-6725
DOI:10.1007/s11211-021-00373-0