Religiosity, Authoritarianism, Social Dominance and Ambivalent Sexism as Predictors of Rape Myth Acceptance

The study investigates a cluster of cognitive and personality constructs in relation to rape myth acceptance among a student population in the West of Scotland. Specifically it looks at the associations between strength of religious faith (the importance of religion in one’s life) and religious fundamentalism (certainty in ones’ religion as the singular provider of truth), authoritarianism (conservative, inflexible outlook), social dominance (tendency to prefer hierarchical structures linked to discriminatory attitudes), ambivalent sexism (comprising of hostile and benevolent sexism) and rape myth. The findings indicate that gender roles and expectations, social conservatism and religious feeling are all positively related to the acceptance of rape myth mythology. It is hoped that a deeper understanding of rape mythology will eventually promote a more facilitative culture for rape victims, reflected by an increase in progressive and comprehensive policies, higher report and convictions rates and enhanced post incident care.