Rape Myth Acceptance Reflects Perceptions of Media Portrayals as Similar to Others,but Not the Self

Abstract

Understanding the antecedents and consequences of rape myths is important for sexual assault prevention programming. We investigated whether general perceptions of media predict rape myth endorsement among community college students, a group with elevated sexual assault risk. Students who perceived greater similarity between people they know and people in media reported higher endorsement of rape myths that blame the victim and exonerate the accused. This relationship did not emerge for perceptions of one’s personal similarity to people in media, with the exception of men’s endorsement of myths exonerating male perpetrators.

Keywords

media rape myths sexual assault

Introduction

The widespread and prominent media coverage currently focused on sexual harassment and assault has offered a sobering display of the scope and prevalence of sexual assault in our society. As one example, in a movement reinvigorated by the response to a number of sexual assault accusations against high profile public figures, many women and men on social media platforms have been publicly sharing their experiences of sexual harassment and assault using the hashtag #MeToo (Codrea-Rado, 2017). The sheer number of people posting these messages argues against a common myth about rape; namely, that it is a rare occurrence that only happens to people who were somehow “asking for it.” #MeToo stories have been noteworthy, in part, because messages found in social, entertainment, and news media often reinforce rather than challenge myths about sexual assault. Insight into how beliefs about the media and beliefs about rape may connect is particularly needed to inform sexual assault prevention programming to help people navigate and respond to media messages related to sexual assault. Furthermore, research may identify target groups who would particularly benefit from such programming, as the same media landscape may impact individuals differently depending upon how they make sense of the messages it contains.

In the current study, we explore how the interpretation of media messages may relate to beliefs about rape myths within a sample of community college students. We focus on rape myths as both a symptom of and contributor to the high incidence of rape in our culture, evidenced by U.S. national survey data estimating that 19.3% of women and 1.7% of men have been raped at some point during their lifetimes (Breiding et al., 2014). The majority of incidents involve male perpetrators and female victims; therefore, we employed gendered language that reflects the most typical male–female rape incidents; however, we acknowledge that sexual violence involves other gender configurations as well. College students face particular risk; approximately one in five college women report experiencing sexual assault during their time at college (Cantor et al., 2015). Our study focused on community college students. Less is known about sexual assault incidence among community college students, whose experiences with sexual assault may be more likely to occur off-campus or involve nonstudents compared with 4-year residential college students. Recent surveys with different community college samples have begun to address this knowledge gap, reporting that 11% of students have experienced sexual assault since beginning college (Howard et al., 2018), 10% of students have experienced sexual assault in the past year (Scull et al., 2019), and 25% of students have experienced sexual assault at some point in their lifetime (Voth Schrag & Edmond, 2018). Despite these similarly high risk levels, community college students have far less access to sexual health resources on campus (Eisenberg et al., 2012). Understanding how media-related cognitions relate to beliefs about sexual assault within a community college sample may help inform prevention programming to undermine belief in rape myths among this understudied and underserved group of students.

Rape Myths

Rape myths are culturally defined ways of understanding rape that attempt to justify or dismiss the occurrence of rape (e.g., Brownmiller, 1975; Burt, 1980; Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1974). These generally false beliefs can be categorized in different ways, but most focus on blaming the victim, exonerating the accused, or dismissing reports of sexual incidents as not actually constituting rape (e.g., Edwards et al., 2011; Payne et al., 1999). The myths themselves are contradictory; they claim that only certain women (e.g., provocatively dressed or sexually promiscuous) are raped, yet they also claim that men never intend to rape anyone, insinuating that their sexual desire just got out of control. Arguably, the power of rape myths is that they appeal to a sense of a just world by explaining a frightening crime as a controllable event that only happens to women who brought it upon themselves (Grubb & Turner, 2012). These myths are endorsed by both men and women, although men often report higher belief in rape myths than women (e.g., Clark & Carroll, 2008; Johnson et al., 1997).

The potential for psychological comfort offered by these rape myths comes at a cost. Among men, rape myth endorsement has been linked to higher prospective odds of committing sexual assault (Loh et al., 2005), a causal path that is supported by experimental work showing increased correlations between rape myth acceptance and self-reported rape proclivity when rape myths are first brought to mind (Bohner et al., 2005). Among women, agreement with rape myths predicts lower sensitivity to cues about their risk of sexual assault victimization (Yeater et al., 2010) and lower likelihood that they will label their own experience of sexual assault as rape (Peterson & Muehlenhard, 2004).

Rape Myths in the Media

Prior theoretical and empirical work suggests that media exposure often promotes belief in rape myths. Representations of rape are ubiquitous in contemporary media (Projansky, 2001); thus, cultivation theory (Gerbner, 1969; Gerbner et al., 2002) would predict that greater levels of media consumption would increase acceptance of rape myths through exposure to a consistent media narrative of violence against women. Indeed, more time spent viewing television is correlated with rape myth acceptance among college women (Kahlor & Morrison, 2007) and lifetime video game usage predicts rape myth acceptance among men and women (Fox & Potocki, 2016). However, following arguments that variations in media consumption and media content will impact media influence above and beyond consumption (Potter & Chang, 1990), much work has examined the content and effects of rape portrayals in different types of media.

Content analysis of news coverage reveals the presence of rape myths in stories covering sexual assault crimes; for example, 65% of stories written about the Kobe Bryant rape allegations included a rape myth in their coverage (Franiuk, Seefelt, Cepress, & Vandello, 2008). As some have argued, the need for news outlets to attract viewers likely incentivizes a focus on “controversial” or unusual rape cases involving strangers or extreme violence (e.g., Benedict, 1992; Kitzinger, 2009), coverage that can reinforce the myth that incidents do not actually constitute rape if they involve an acquaintance or do not include violence. Even beyond the news content itself, the accompanying context of stories related to sexual assault may promote myths; across four major newspapers, upward of one in four comments on articles about rape blamed the victim for their sexual assault (Zaleski et al., 2016). Rape myths in news coverage are consequential, as brief exposure to news headlines containing rape myths increased victim blaming among men (Franiuk, Seefelt, & Vandello, 2008).

Beyond news media, fictional television and film portrayals of sexual assault carry implications for rape myth acceptance as well. In a broad sense, exposure to degrading and violent media portrayals of women is related to desensitization to violence against women in general (Linz et al., 1988). More specifically, critical studies of film and television portrayals of rape and violence against women suggest that these fictional narratives often depict rape myths (e.g., Cuklanz, 2000; Projansky, 2001). Examinations of particular television genres raise the possibility that the treatment of rape within a given genre or show may impact subsequent belief in rape myths. For example, correlational analyses link soap opera viewership to greater endorsement of rape myths and perception of higher incidence of false rape accusations (Kahlor & Eastin, 2011). In contrast, exposure to television crime dramas has been linked to lower endorsement of rape myths (e.g., Kahlor & Eastin, 2011; Lee et al., 2010). Follow-up work has added further nuance, finding that Law & Order franchise viewership was related to decreased rape myth acceptance; however, watching CSI and NCIS did not show similar effects (Hust et al., 2015). These differences likely reflect variation in the portrayals of rape across series: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit storylines often challenge rape myths (Cuklanz & Moorti, 2006), while CSI storylines often reinforce the myth that “she asked for it” (Foss, 2010). In experimental work, male participants reported greater acceptance of rape myths after being randomly assigned to view sexually violent film scenes (Weisz & Earls, 1995) or play video games depicting violence against women (Beck et al., 2012).

Beliefs about rape and sexual violence in general have also been examined in relation to exposure to pornographic or sexually explicit content. Exposure to such content is common; for example, surveys at one large U.S. university revealed that about 93% of boys and 62% of girls had been exposed to online pornography through either intentional or unintentional means before age 18 (Sabina et al., 2008). Although content varies, an analysis of 50 of the most popular pornographic videos found that 88% depicted physical aggression, such as spanking, slapping, or choking, which was almost always perpetrated by men against women (Bridges et al., 2010). Examinations of potential links between exposure to pornography and sexually aggressive beliefs and behaviors have not reached a consensus as to the nature of effects (Lim et al., 2016), but some prominent work suggests that men’s pornography exposure is positively related to more accepting beliefs about sexual aggression (Hald et al., 2010; Malamuth et al., 2012).

Taken together, these studies suggest that media consumption is related to rape myth acceptance, yet media consumers themselves likely bring their own interpretive lens to these media messages. The role of individual cognitive processing of media exposure raises questions that are not currently addressed by the extant literature.

Perceptions of the Media

Media’s rape myth content and individuals’ media consumption choices are key factors in predicting rape myth beliefs, but do not offer information about how viewers make sense of this content. The interpretive lens that the viewer him or herself brings to media messages is likely impactful. The Message Interpretation Process (MIP) model offers a theory to explain how media messages are interpreted, proposing that individuals make sense of media messages through both logical and emotional processes (Austin & Johnson, 1997; Austin & Meili, 1994). According to the MIP model, media messages will have a greater impact on individuals who perceive them as more realistic, who perceive people in them as more similar to themselves or people they know, and who personally identify with those messages. By highlighting cognitions that may explain the persuasive impact of media messages, this model sheds light on how media messages that communicate rape myths are processed. We draw upon this model to measure the general interpretive lens that students in our community college sample bring to their encounters with media.

Beliefs About Rape: The Role of the Self Versus Others

When making judgments related to sexual assault, people differentiate between the self and others in important ways. When asked to judge the likelihood of experiencing unwanted sexual activities, women assess those experiences as less likely to happen to them than to other college women (Norris et al., 1999; Rinehart et al., 2017). Experimental work complements these findings; women judge interactions with men as presenting greater risk for undesired sexual experiences when randomly assigned to imagine another woman in the situation compared with imagining themselves in the same situation (Cue et al., 1996; Yeater et al., 2009). These distinctions in risk appraisals between the self and others reflect a more general “optimistic bias” documented across risk judgment domains. People tend to optimistically overestimate the odds of favorable events and underestimate the odds of unfavorable events happening to them relative to others (e.g., Weinstein, 1980, 1987). Although these optimistic judgments of one’s personal risk for sexual assault are consistent with typical results for risk judgments, they also correspond closely to rape myths that blame the victim. For example, in focus group discussions with college sorority members, women expressed the belief that they were “too smart to be raped” and not “dumb enough” to place themselves in unsafe situations (Norris et al., 1996). Yet, the distinction between the self and others mattered, as these women also expressed concern about the safety of other sorority members.

Considering media-related cognitions in light of these optimistic biases raises a number of questions. First, if students report seeing themselves in media, does that make them more or less likely to endorse rape myths? Intuitively, feelings of similarity between the self and media portrayals offer a plausible pathway through which rape myths may be developed, reinforced, and internalized (or challenged). However, an alternative pathway is also plausible—perceiving media portrayals as similar to people one knows may be more closely associated with one’s beliefs about rape than feelings of personal similarity. For both women and men, seeing media portrayals as similar to people in one’s life may circumvent self-protecting optimistic beliefs about one’s own safety or behavior to shape beliefs about rape. Perceiving media portrayals as similar to others may promote not only perceptions of risk for other women but perhaps endorsement of myths as to why other women are sexually assaulted. Thus, the current exploratory study will examine the possibility that personally identifying with the media may operate differently than seeing media portrayals as similar to others.

In addition, most of the work on these self-other biases related to sexual assault has focused on women making judgments of their risk for victimization. Yet, media messages reach both men and women, and their interpretations of media messages may lead them to different beliefs about common rape myths, particularly given that typical scripts for sexual assault portray men as aggressors and women as victims. The potential for sexual scripts to be perceived differently by men and women suggests that gender may moderate the impact of media-related cognitions on rape myth acceptance. For example, men and women interpret motivations in dating scenarios differently; women see men’s sexually aggressive actions as motivated by women’s actions and attractiveness, whereas men interpret those actions as motivated by mutual sexual interest (Ambrose & Gross, 2016). However, men and women report similar distinctions between sexual scripts in general and those applied to oneself in particular; for example, men and women both indicate that typical sexual encounters between others involve higher risk behaviors than do their own sexual encounters (Krahé et al., 2007). Taken together, this work suggests that both men and women may differentiate between cognitions related to the self versus others, but it is unclear whether these cognitions will shape rape myth acceptance in the same way for men and women.

Research Questions

Among a sample of community college students, we examined the relationship between a battery of rape myth beliefs and perceptions of media as similar to the self and similar to others, related media literacy beliefs, and controlling for a set of key demographic variables. Drawing upon prior work, our background demographic variables included religiosity, which has been linked to higher rape myth acceptance (e.g., Reling et al., 2017) and experience with dating violence, which has been linked to lower rape myth acceptance (e.g., Baugher et al., 2010). Our approach allowed us to examine whether people’s perceptions of similarity between media and the self versus others predicted differential endorsement of rape myths. In addition, we investigated three distinct, but related, rape myths to allow for potential differences in these relationships depending upon the specific content of the myth. Finally, the current study examined whether or not gender moderated the relationship between media-related cognitions and beliefs about rape. This exploratory examination of the linkages between media-related cognitions and rape myth acceptance among young adult men and women in a community college setting may offer insights into risks and potential approaches for preventing campus sexual assault.

Method

Participants

Participants (N = 286, 40% male, 51% female) were students between the ages of 18 and 19 at a community college who were participating as part of the evaluation of a sexual health curriculum. Participating students were racially (51% White, 24% Black or African American, 11% Multiracial) and ethnically (19% Hispanic) diverse. Given the sexual nature of research topics, participants also reported their sexual orientation (76% identified as heterosexual; 14% identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or questioning).

Procedure

Students were recruited from eight community college campuses in the southeastern United States through print or online advertisements or in-person campus tabling. Students who met the eligibility criteria of age (18 or 19), enrollment in community college, English language fluency, and ownership of a smartphone or tablet (for receipt of program materials) were invited to participate. All procedures and materials were institutional review board (IRB)-approved. The current study analyses focused on the baseline assessment collected from students prior to their random assignment to the intervention or control group. Measures were completed through a web-based questionnaire that allowed participating students to respond to the survey at a time and in a location of their choosing. Upon completion of the baseline assessment, participants received a US$20 gift card as an incentive for participating in the study.

Measures

Measures in the current study are taken from a longer assessment battery that included measures of specific attitudes and beliefs related to media messages, sexual norms, sexual knowledge, and sexual behaviors. Our research question led us to focus on measures of rape myth acceptance, cognitions related to the media in general, and participants’ demographic characteristics. Unless otherwise specified below, participants responded to items by rating their endorsement on a scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (4) strongly agree.

Rape Myth Acceptance

Participants rated their agreement with 13 items describing rape myths drawn from McMahon and Farmer’s (McMahon, 2010; McMahon & Farmer, 2011) revised version of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Payne et al., 1999). In a principal component analysis, items factored into three constructs that were consistent with prior use of the scale. The first construct is the myth that “she asked for it” when rape occurs and consisted of four items (i.e., “When girls go to parties wearing slutty clothes, they are asking for trouble”; “If a girl is raped while she’s drunk, she is at least somewhat responsible for letting things get out of hand”; “If a girl goes to a room alone with a guy at a party, it is her own fault if she is raped”; “If a girl acts like a slut, eventually she is going to get into trouble”) that loaded onto this myth (factor loadings >.70, M = 2.07, SD = .76, α = .83). Six items loaded onto the second construct, which reflected the myth that “It wasn’t really rape,” including “If both people are drunk, it can’t be rape”; “It shouldn’t be considered rape if a guy is drunk and didn’t realize what he was doing”; “If a girl doesn’t physically resist sex—even if protesting verbally—it can’t be considered rape”; “If a girl doesn’t physically fight back, you can’t really say it was rape”; “If a girl doesn’t say ‘no’ she can’t claim rape”; and “If the accused ‘rapist’ doesn’t have a weapon, you really can’t call it rape” (factor loadings >.61, M = 1.60, SD = .56, α = .80). Finally, the third construct represents the myth that “he didn’t mean to rape” and included three items that loaded onto this myth (factor loadings >.68, M = 2.26, SD = .77, α = .75). Items that portrayed rape as a result of men’s uncontrollable sex drives included “When guys rape, it is usually because of their strong desire for sex”; “Guys don’t usually intend to force sex on a girl, but sometimes they get too sexually carried away”; and “Rape happens when a guy’s sex drive goes out of control.”

Media-Related Cognitions

Participants responded to a series of measures of media-related cognitions adapted from Austin and Johnson (1997). To be inclusive of a range of potential media content (e.g., both sexually explicit and not) and mediums of communication (e.g., television, film, music), the measures asked students to report their judgments of media portrayals in general.

Similarity

Seven items assessed perceptions that media portrayals in general are similar to oneself and close others. We conducted a principal component analysis to determine whether or not items assessing perceptions of media relative to the self and relative to others reflected two distinct judgments. After dropping a single item with a loading below .5, items factored onto two separate constructs: perception that media messages depict people and stories that are similar to oneself (e.g., “I am like the people in the media,” factor loadings >.78) or similar to others (e.g., “People I know are like people in the media,” factor loadings >.64). Items on each scale were averaged such that higher mean scores reflect greater perceptions of media as similar to the self (three items, M = 1.88, SD = .64, α = .75) and similar to others (three items, M = 2.08, SD = .68, α = .71).

Realism

Two items assessed the degree to which participants see media in general as a realistic reflection of the behavior of people their age. They rated their agreement with two statements that “People my age in the media . . . do things that average people my age do” and “act like average people my age” (M = 2.47, SD = .74; r = .57, p < .001). Higher mean scores reflect greater perceived realism of media messages.

Aspirational Identification

Three items assessed the degree to which participants aspired to be similar to media portrayals in general including “I want to do the things that people my age in the media do”; “I would like to be like the people my age that I see in the media”; and “I want to look like the people my age that I see in the media” (M = 2.20, SD = .80, α = .85). Higher scores reflect greater aspirational identification with media portrayals.

Background Characteristics

Religiosity

As a demographic characteristic with potential relevance to beliefs about rape, we included a measure of intrinsic religiosity (adapted from Hoge, 1972). Six items assessed the degree to which religion is the dominant orientation that shapes one’s worldview (e.g., My ideas about religion are one of the most important parts of my philosophy of life). Responses were averaged such that higher scores reflected greater religiosity (M = 2.60, SD = .88, α = .93).

Experience With Dating Violence

Five items captured exposure to any type of dating violence within the past 12 months. Participants indicated whether they had experienced unwanted sexual touching or penetration (including unsuccessful attempts), or emotionally, physically, or sexually abusive relationships using the response categories “Yes,” “No,” or “Unsure.” We created a binary categorical measure that collapsed all “Yes” and “Unsure” responses across all five items such that 0 = no experience of dating violence in the past 12 months, 1 = any possible experience of dating violence in the past 12 months. This coding scheme captured the most inclusive definition of experience with dating violence (including emotional abuse) even if participants were unsure, and 30% (39% of women, 24% of men) of the sample reported some type of experience with dating violence in the past 12 months.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

We first assessed the amount of missing data across our measures of interest and found that we had full data for 88% of the sample. We ran a series of comparisons between those who did and did not have missing data across each measure. We did not find any mean differences on our measures of media-related cognitions or rape myth acceptance between participants with and without missing data. In addition, participants with and without missing data did not differ by religiosity, gender, or ethnicity. Small cell counts make comparisons difficult, but participants with missing data appeared to be more likely to identify their sexuality as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or questioning (χ²(1, N = 258) = 11.85, p = .001), more likely to be a racial minority group member (χ²(1, N = 286) = 31.01, p < .001), and more likely to have experienced dating violence (χ²(1, N = 264) = 3.80, p = .051). Given small levels of missingness, we utilized listwise deletion in our analyses, but included the full set of demographic variables as covariates in our regression analyses to account for these associations between background characteristics and missing data.

Bivariate Results

We report mean comparisons between men and women for our continuous dependent and independent variables in Table 1. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Clark & Carroll, 2008; Johnson et al., 1997), men in our sample reported significantly higher endorsement of each of the three rape myths than did women. There were no gender differences on the measures of media-related cognitions or level of religiosity.

Table 1.

Correlations and Mean Comparisons of Men and Women for Rape Myth Acceptance, Media Cognitions, and Religiosity Variables.

Variable	Men M (SD)	Women M (SD)	t statistic (df = 258)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Rape myth acceptance
1. “She asked for it”	2.23 (.70)	1.93 (.78)	−3.14**	—	.54***	.47***	.05	.20**	.11	−.05	.27***
2. “It wasn’t really rape”	1.74 (.61)	1.48 (.50)	−3.64***		—	.42***	.17**	.20**	.09	.13*	.12
3. “He didn’t mean to rape”	2.41 (.71)	2.13 (.81)	−2.91**			—	.07	.22***	.19**	−.01	.07
Media cognitions
4. Similarity to self	1.81 (.63)	1.93 (.64)	1.46				—	.42***	.30***	.51***	.02
5. Similarity to others	2.04 (.65)	2.10 (.72)	.77					—	.31***	.21***	.10
6. Realism	2.56 (.75)	2.42 (.73)	−1.56						—	.08	.04
7. Aspirational identification	2.13 (.74)	2.26 (.84)	1.33							—	−.14*
8. Religiosity	2.51 (.89)	2.70 (.86)	1.66								—

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

In addition to mean comparisons, an alternative way to think about rape myth acceptance is to examine the percentage of participants whose mean responses fell above or below the scale midpoint, essentially accepting or rejecting each rape myth. Within our sample, the percentage of people whose mean response fell above the midpoint varied across the three myths. Overall, 25% of participants (32% of men; 19% of women) accepted the myth that “She asked for it,” whereas only 5% of participants (9% of men; 3% of women) accepted the myth that “It wasn’t really rape,” and 40% of participants (46% of men; 35% of women) accepted the myth that “He didn’t mean to rape.”

We also examined bivariate correlations among our continuous measures (Table 1). Moderate, positive correlations emerged among the three rape myth acceptance measures, ranging from r = .42 between the myths that “He didn’t mean to rape” and “It wasn’t really rape,” to r = .54 between agreement with the myths that “She asked for it” and “It wasn’t really rape.” Among the media-related cognitions, belief that media are similar to oneself was correlated with only one rape myth, “It wasn’t really rape” (r = .17). In contrast, the belief that media are similar to others correlated positively with all three rape myths. Small positive correlations also emerged between the cognition that media are realistic and the myth that “He didn’t mean to rape” (r = .19), and aspirational identification with media and the myth that “It wasn’t really rape” (r = .13). Religiosity was significantly positively correlated with the “She asked for it” myth, but not the other two myths.

Multivariate Results

We next examined the multivariate relationship between interpretations of media, as measured by media-related cognitions, and rape myth acceptance. To do so, we examined a series of regression models in which media-related cognitions and demographic variables were regressed upon each of the three rape myth acceptance outcomes. The regression models included the set of four media-related cognitions (i.e., self-similarity, other-similarity, realism, aspirational identification) along with a set of covariates drawn from the demographic questionnaire, which included gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religiosity, and recent experience of dating violence.

In response to previous work demonstrating gender differences in the effects of media exposure on rape myth acceptance (e.g., Beck et al., 2012; Weisz & Earls, 1995), we also tested whether gender moderated the relationship between any of the media-related cognitions and acceptance of any of the three rape myths. After centering the continuous predictors, we ran models that included interactions between participant gender and each of the media cognitions (self-similarity, other-similarity, realism, and aspirational identification). Among the possible interactions with gender, only one reached significance (in the regression model of the “He didn’t mean to rape” myth outcome). For parsimony, we have removed the nonsignificant interaction terms from the models reported here. Where there is a significant interaction, we present models both with and without the inclusion of the interaction term to aid in the interpretation of findings.

Outcome: Acceptance of the Rape Myth “She Asked for It”

Turning to our regression model for the first outcome (shown in Table 2), agreement with the myth that women who are raped were “asking for it,” the omnibus test for the overall model was significant, F(10, 241) = 5.84, p < .001, and the model explained 20% of variance in acceptance of this myth. Among the set of demographic covariates, only gender and religiosity emerged as significantly related to the endorsement of this rape myth. Consistent with the bivariate results, men endorsed the myth more highly than women, even controlling for other demographic characteristics (b = 0.31, SE = .09, p = .001). Greater religiosity was also related to stronger beliefs that rape occurs to women who “asked for it” (b = 0.19, SE = .05, p = .001). Turning to the set of media-related cognitions, greater perceptions that media portrayals are similar to others were related to significantly higher endorsement of the myth that women who are raped were asking for it (b = 0.22, SE = .08, p = .005). Greater perceptions of media messages as similar to the self, perceptions of media as realistic in general, or aspirational identification with media were each unrelated to endorsement of this myth. No significant interactions emerged between these media cognitions and gender.

Table 2.

Media-Related Variables and Demographic Background Characteristics Predicting Rape Myth Acceptance.

Variable	“She asked for it”		“It wasn’t really rape”		“He didn’t mean to rape”
	“She asked for it”		“It wasn’t really rape”		Model 1		Model 2
	b	SE	b	SE	b	SE	b	SE
Constant	0.92**	.28	0.69**	.21	1.16***	.30	1.98***	.16
Media-related cognitions
Similarity to self	−0.03	.09	0.03	.07	−0.09	.10	−0.29*	.12
Similarity to others	0.22**	.08	0.09	.06	0.26**	.08	0.29***	.08
Realism	0.03	.07	0.02	.05	0.16*	.07	0.16*	.07
Aspirational identification	−0.03	.07	0.07	.05	−0.01	.07	0.01	.07
Demographics
Gender^a	0.31**	.09	0.28***	.07	0.25*	.10	0.26**	.10
Race^b	−0.08	.10	−0.12	.07	−0.03	.10	−0.02	.10
Ethnicity^c	0.12	.11	0.07	.09	0.18	.12	0.18	.12
Sexual orientation^d	0.25	.14	0.24*	.10	0.22	.14	0.20	.14
Experience with dating violence^e	−0.15	.10	0.07	.08	−0.06	.11	−0.04	.10
Religiosity	0.19**	.05	0.06	.04	0.02	.06	0.02	.06
Interaction terms
Similarity to Self × Gender	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.41**	.15

Note. LGBQ = lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or questioning.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Reference group is female (0 = female, 1 = male). ^bReference group is non-White. ^cReference group is non-Hispanic. ^dReference group is LGBQ orientation. ^eReference group is those with no recent experience with dating violence.

Outcome: Acceptance of the Rape Myth “It Wasn’t Really Rape”

Next, we turn to the regression model predicting agreement with the myth that “It wasn’t really rape,” which inappropriately limits the definition of rape to violent or “stranger rape” incidents. As shown in Table 2, our overall model explained 16% of variance in acceptance of this myth, F(10, 241) = 4.54, p < .001. Among the demographic characteristics, men were more likely than women to endorse this myth (b = 0.28, SE = .07, p < .001), consistent with patterns in our bivariate results. In addition, heterosexual respondents were more likely to endorse this myth than were people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or questioning (b = 0.24, SE = .10, p = .020). Among the set of media-related cognitions, no significant relationships emerged between interpretations of media messages and acceptance of the “It wasn’t really rape” myth.

Outcome: Acceptance of the Rape Myth “He Didn’t Mean to Rape”

Finally, we report two regression models predicting acceptance of the third rape myth, “He didn’t mean to rape,” which describes rape as an occasional, unintended consequence of a man’s sex drive. We include two models to show effects with and without the inclusion of interaction terms. In Model 1 without interaction terms, the overall regression model explains 14% of variance in myth acceptance, F(10, 241) = 3.91, p < .001. First, looking at demographic characteristics, we find similar results to the other two myths, as again men reported higher acceptance of this rape myth than women (b = 0.25, SE = .10, p = .014). No other demographic variables were significant predictors. Turning to the media-related cognition measures, again perceptions of similarity between media portrayals and other people were related to significantly higher acceptance of this rape myth (b = 0.26, SE = .08, p = .001). The perception of media portrayals as realistic was also related to significantly higher acceptance of the myth that male perpetrators did not mean to rape (b = 0.16, SE = .07, p = .025).

As discussed in the preliminary analyses, only one interaction emerged between gender and our set of media-related cognitions, an interaction between gender and similarity with the self. The final column in Table 2 reports regression Model 2 predicting acceptance of the “He didn’t mean to rape” myth and including this interaction term. Overall the model explains 17% of variance, F(11, 240) = 4.32, p < .001. The interaction term is significant (b = 0.41, SE = .15, p = .007), and, notably, the inclusion of this term does not meaningfully change the other effects reported in Model 1. To unpack the significant interaction between gender and perception of media as similar to the self, we ran a series of linear regression models to examine the effects of self-similarity cognitions among men and women, and gender differences across levels of the self-similarity variable. To ease interpretation of the interaction effect, we ran a simplified model that regressed gender, self-similarity, and their interaction term on agreement with the myth that “He didn’t mean to rape.” Results indicate that among men, greater perceptions of self-similarity were positively related to endorsement of this rape myth (b = 0.28, SE = .11, p = .015, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [.05, .50]), while self-similarity perceptions were unrelated to rape myth acceptance among women (b = 0.04, SE = .09, p = .668). Examining these gender differences across levels of perceived self-similarity revealed that while there was no effect of gender at low levels of self-similarity (−1 SD, b = 0.09, SE = .13, p = .52), there was a significant difference between men and women who reported high levels of self-similarity (+1 SD, b = 0.50, SE = .14, p < .001, 95% CI = [.22, .77]).

Discussion

The current study examined how interpretations of media messages related to acceptance of rape myths among community college students, a population in need of resources related to sexual assault prevention and sexual health promotion. Building upon prior work linking media exposure to rape myth acceptance (Kahlor & Morrison, 2007), we asked whether general perceptions of media might predict endorsement of three different rape myths, and included an exploratory look at whether perceptions that the self or others are similar to people portrayed in media related to beliefs about rape. For two of the three rape myths assessed, we found that greater perception that people one knows are similar to people in media was related to greater rape myth acceptance; specifically, that female victims of rape were “asking for it” and that male rapists “didn’t mean to rape.” These effects emerged even in the context of controlling for other media-related cognitions and demographic characteristics and were not impacted by participants’ gender. Perception that the self is similar to people in the media or self-reported aspirational identification with the media did not relate significantly to rape myth endorsement, with the exception of the myth that “he didn’t mean to rape.” A gender-moderated pattern emerged for this myth; among male college students, a positive relationship existed between perceptions that they are similar to people in the media and endorsement that men who rape “didn’t mean to rape,” while no relationship emerged between these variables among our female participants.

These results carry a number of implications for the existing literature on media and rape myths. First, less skeptical interpretations of media messages (as indicated by greater perceptions of similarity between others and media portrayals) were related to greater belief in two common rape myths. The magnitude of these effects was somewhat small, suggesting that important factors predict rape myth acceptance outside of the media interpretation variables explored in this study. However, the emergence of these relationships despite the general nature of our media-related cognition measures is noteworthy. Indeed, we asked participants to report on their interpretations of media messages in general, rather than to report on similarity to specific media messages involving sexual behavior or sexual assault. Although the correlational nature of these results cannot speak to a causal process, they are consistent with a cultivation theory-based prediction that rape myths in media shape people’s beliefs about rape. Our results suggest that this influence is unlikely to operate through feelings of personal similarity to media portrayals. Instead, a more likely entry-point may be seeing media portrayals as similar to people one knows, perceptions that related to greater belief in rape myths among our community college student sample. In contrast, seeing oneself as similar to media portrayals may not extend to portrayals of rape or impact subsequent belief in rape myths. This self-other distinction is akin to optimistic biases in judgments of one’s personal risk of experiencing sexual assault compared with that of other people (e.g., Norris et al., 1999; Yeater et al., 2009). These patterns are also consistent with the well-established “third person effect,” in which people estimate that media has greater impact on others than on themselves (Davison, 1983; Lo & Wei, 2002). It is possible that some respondents were more likely to see similarities between others and media portrayals, and that they also reported an analogous perception that sexual assault may happen to other people but not oneself, as indicated by endorsement of victim-blaming myths.

Our pattern of effects differed across the three rape myths that we assessed. Regarding the demographic characteristics in our sample, we replicated gender differences reported in previous studies (Clark & Carroll, 2008; Johnson et al., 1997), as male students endorsed all three rape myths more strongly than their female peers. Religiosity only emerged as a significant predictor of the myth that “she asked for it,” which included phrases like “if a girl acts like a slut” and “wearing slutty clothes” and may have evoked victimization as a punishment for “immoral” behavior more than the other myths. Among the media cognitions, perception of media as similar to others appeared to matter for rape myths focused on motivations and guilt attributions (“she asked for it,” “he didn’t mean to rape”), but not for the myth focused on definitions of rape. The interpersonal, social nature of these other-similarity media judgments may explain why a similar pattern of effects emerged only for the two rape myths that address people’s motivations for rape. However, it is possible that the low level of endorsement overall for the “It wasn’t really rape” myth in our sample simply limited variance in our regression model. Results also revealed an interaction between the self-similarity media judgment and participant gender, but only in the model predicting the “he didn’t mean to rape” myth. Men that see themselves in media portrayals agreed with this myth more than women and more than men who reported lower self-similarity with media. Belief in this particular myth may serve as a way to address the likely dissonance experienced by men who see themselves as similar to men in media, who are most likely to be the aggressor in portrayals of sexual assault.

This work is not without limitations, the first of which is that the results are correlational in nature, and could be bidirectional or reflect some other third variable. We have conceptualized a pathway that extends from interpretations of media to belief in rape myths, which seems more likely than the reverse pathway in light of work showing experimental effects of exposure to rape myths in media on victim blaming (e.g., Franiuk et al., 2008). Relatedly, this study cannot directly address the role of media exposure. Our measures focused on general cognitions related to media, yet the type of media that each college student consumes may offer additional insight into the strength of the relationship between interpretations of media and belief in rape myths; for example, some individuals may not encounter rape myths in the media they consume. Our measures also focused on media generally, and did not query social media practices in particular. Notably, social media not only presents a space in which students may encounter or even experience forms of sexual violence but also offers opportunities for sexual assault prevention and activism (e.g., Locke et al., 2018). Given these limitations, the relative strength of the relationship between media cognitions and media consumption with rape myth acceptance is not known. Future work is needed to determine whether similar patterns replicate in different samples and in new media landscapes. Finally, our rape myth constructs focused narrowly on men as perpetrators and women as victims. Media portrayals typically focus on this type of rape, but it is also important to keep in mind that rape takes other forms and, although not studied here, other pervasive rape myths are that only men rape women and that only women can be raped. Cross- and same-gender rape also occur, and rape myths related to these forms of rape also warrant study.

So what do these results mean for prevention efforts with college students? The positive relationship observed between perceptions of similarity between media and peers with endorsement of rape myths suggests a few potential avenues for prevention messaging. First, a key goal may be to reduce students’ perception of similarity between media portrayals and people they know. This goal may be achieved through educational programs designed to enhance media literacy skills and increase thoughtful, skeptical processing of media imagery related to sexual behavior (Brown, 2006; Keller & Brown, 2002). If there is a causal relationship between the processing of media messages and rape myth acceptance, then media literacy education may lower endorsement of these generally false beliefs by teaching students to analyze and argue against inaccurate portrayals of sexual assault. Related approaches to promoting healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors through media literacy education with adolescents has been evaluated and has demonstrated some success in improving media literacy skills, increasing favorable perceptions of abstinence, and increasing intentions to practice safe sex (Pinkleton et al., 2008, 2012; Scull et al., 2014). Notably, the media literacy education program conducted with this sample of community college students demonstrated beneficial effects on students’ sexual cognitions and risky sexual behaviors (Scull et al., 2017). Future intervention studies are needed to examine mediating mechanisms such as perceived similarity between both the self and others with people portrayed in media.

Second, designing messages about sexual assault on college campuses necessitates making choices about one’s target audience and framing of the issue. Should messages attempt to increase the self-relevance of sexual assault information to reach students? Or should messages focus instead on risks to others, such as friends and classmates, to avoid self-related optimistic biases that may undercut attention or message processing? Both approaches have been pursued with some success. Some previous efforts at creating sexual assault prevention messages have focused on heightening the self-relevance of messages, and report that more interactive, self-relevant messages were processed more carefully (Heppner, Good, et al., 1995; Heppner, Humphrey, et al., 1995). Following this lead, increasing the similarity between the self and a survivor of sexual assault has been employed as a strategy for decreasing optimistic self-bias with some success (Untied & Dulaney, 2015). Yet, at the same time, efforts to combat campus sexual assault have also turned to bystander intervention approaches (e.g., Banyard et al., 2004; McMahon & Banyard, 2012). Rape myths matter for their success; endorsement of rape myths is related to lower reported intentions to intervene when encountering sexual aggression (Hust et al., 2016; McMahon, 2010). Our study focused on perceptions of media—which most often provide images that promote rather than argue against rape myths—rather than perceptions of prevention messaging. However, observed relationships between rape myths and cognitions about others’ similarity to people in media suggest that sexual assault prevention messages focusing attention on thinking about others rather than the self may have more purchase among college students.

In conclusion, our study of beliefs about one type of illegal and harmful behavior speaks to the profound relationship between media messages and critical interpersonal behaviors. Media portrayals and coverage of rape continue to change over time. Most recently, widespread news coverage of sexual assault allegations against high profile figures in politics and media suggests that women’s stories of assault are being taken more seriously than in the past. Yet, at the same time, some responses to these allegations continue to evoke myths about sexual assault, suggesting that critical thinking about such messages will remain necessary. This study contributes to the broader literature on sources of influence on important cognitions, highlighting the cumulative and potentially insidious impact of media messaging on some of our most important beliefs about the causes of sexual victimization.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the college students and community colleges who participated in this study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The project described was supported in part by Award Number R21DA035665 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health to Dr. Scull. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Author Biographies

Kristen C. Elmore, PhD, is a research associate at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the assistant director of the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE) at Cornell University. Her research examines the ways that identity-linked messages in media, as well as more immediate social contexts, translate into individual decision-making related to education and health.

Tracy M. Scull, PhD, is a senior research scientist at innovation Research & Training (iRT), Inc. Dr. Scull’s research concentrates on the prevention of risk behaviors (e.g., substance use experimentation and early/risky sexual behaviors) in children and adolescents using media literacy education. Dr. Scull’s work includes developing school-based and web-based risk prevention programming for children and adolescents; conducting research studies with children and adolescents; and designing trainings for teachers, principals, and school district personnel.

Christina V. Malik, PhD, is a research scientist at iRT. Her primary research focuses on the influence of media on health behaviors and the role of critical media analysis in the processing of media messages. At iRT, her work has focused on the development and evaluation of media literacy education programs designed to prevent risk behaviors (e.g., substance use and early/risky sexual behaviors) in children and adolescents.

Janis B. Kupersmidt, PhD, is the president and a senior research scientist at iRT, which she founded in 1999, and a licensed child clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on the prevention of aggression, substance abuse, other risky health behavior problems (e.g., risky sexual behaviors, drugged driving), and peer rejection using social-emotional learning, media literacy education, mentoring, and mindfulness interventions.

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