Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Rape--Psychological aspects--Public opinion; Men--Attitudes; Rape--Psychological aspects; Academic theses;
Abstract
This study examines conditions under which attitudes related to sexual assault, commonly known as rape myths, may be transmitted through culture by applying the tenets of Social Impact Theory (Latane, 1981). Social impact theory suggests that three forces influence attitude change, namely the immediacy of the source to the target, the strength of the source, and the number of sources of a message. It was hypothesized that participants who chatted with a confederate who was similar to them and endorsed rape myths would report accepting those beliefs at a higher rate than participants who chatted with a confederate who was similar to them but denied the validity of the beliefs. 81 male participants chatted online with a confederate who was either presented as being similar or dissimilar to them and who either endorsed rape myths or denied them. Participants then completed measures of rape myth acceptance, perceived similarity, and likability, and read and responded to 2 vignettes involving sexual assaults. Participants who chatted with a similar chat partner who endorsed rape myths did not report significantly higher levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA), but they did report higher levels of victim blame, lower levels of perpetrator blame, and lower levels of believability of a sexual assault claim. The relationship between RMA and helping behaviors was also examined. Participants who reported high levels of RMA reported lower levels of intent to help a victim of a sexual assault than those participants who reported lower levels of RMA. Implications as well as future research ideas are discussed.
Year of Submission
2009
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Helen C. Harton
Second Advisor
Andrew Gilpin
Third Advisor
B. Keith Crew
Date Original
2009
Object Description
1 PDF file (79 leaves)
Copyright
©2009 Zebbedia G. Gibb
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Gibb, Zebbedia G., "Rape Myth Acceptance in a Dynamic Environment: Application of Social Impact Theory to RMA" (2009). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2740.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2740
Comments
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