Two experiments (N = 330) examined conditions that facilitate biasing effects of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on judgments of blame in rape cases. In both experiments, participants read a short vignette depicting a rape case. In Experiment 1, the amount of case-irrelevant information about defendant and plaintiff was varied. As predicted, high-RMA (vs. low-RMA) participants were less likely to blame the defendant the more irrelevant information they had read. In Experiment 2, participants in a social judgeability condition were made to believe that they had been subliminally exposed to additional case information although in fact no additional information had been presented. As predicted, compared to a control condition, participants’ blame judgments were more biased by their RMA under social judgeability. Our findings reveal that the mechanism underlying the biasing effects of RMA may be the subjective feeling of entitlement to judge.
Abrams, D., Viki, G.T., Masser, B., & Bohner, G. ( 2003). Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 111-125.
3.
Bless, H., Wänke, M., Bohner, G., Fellhauer, R.F., & Schwarz, N. ( 1994). Need for Cognition: Eine Skala zur Erfassung von Engagement und Freude bei Denkaufgaben [Need for cognition: A scale measuring engagement and happiness in cognitive tasks]. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie , 25, 147-154.
4.
Bodenhausen, G.V., & Macrae, C.N. ( 1998). Stereotype activation and inhibition. In R. S. Wyer, Jr. (Ed.), Stereotype activation and inhibition: Advances in social cognition (Vol. 11, pp. 1-52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bohner, G., Reinhard, M.-A., Rutz, S., Sturm, S., Kerschbaum, B., & Effler, D. ( 1998). Rape myths as neutralizing cognitions: Evidence for a causal impact of anti-victim attitudes on men’s self-reported likelihood of raping. European Journal of Social Psychology , 28, 257-268.
7.
Brewer, M.B. ( 1988). A dual process model of impression formation. In R. S. Wyer & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Advances in social cognition ( Vol. 1, pp. 1-36). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
8.
Brewer M.B., & Harasty Feinstein A. (1999). Dual processes in the cognitive representation of persons and social categories. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-process theories in social psychology (pp. 255-270). New York: Guilford Press.
9.
Briere, J., Malamuth, N.M., & Check, J.V.P. ( 1985). Sexuality and rape-supportive beliefs. International Journal of Women’s Studies, 8, 398-403.
10.
Bruner, J.S. ( 1957). Going beyond the information given. In J. S. Bruner, E. Brunswik , L. Festinger, F. Heider, K. F. Muenzinger , C. E. Osgood, et al. (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to cognition (pp. 41-69). Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
11.
Burt, M.R. ( 1980). Cultural myths and supports of rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217-230.
12.
Burt, M.R. ( 1991). Rape myths and acquaintance rape. In A. Parrot & L. Bechhofer (Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 26-40). New York: Wiley.
13.
Cacioppo, J.T., & Petty, R.E. ( 1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131.
14.
Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., Feinstein, J.A., & Jarvis, W.B. ( 1996). Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 197-253.
15.
Costin, F. ( 1985). Beliefs about rape and women’s social roles . Archives of Sexual Behavior, 14, 319-325.
16.
Dunning, D., & Sherman, D.A. ( 1997). Stereotypes and tacit inference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 459-471.
17.
Eyssel, F., & Bohner, G. ( 2008). Modern rape myths: The Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) Scale. In T. G. Morrison, & M. A. Morrison (Eds.). The psychology of modern prejudice. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
18.
Fiske, S.T. ( 1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2, 4th ed., pp. 357-411). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
19.
Fiske, S.T., Lin, M., & Neuberg, S.L. ( 1999). The continuum model: Ten years later. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 231-254). New York: Guilford.
20.
Fiske, S.T., & Neuberg, S.L. ( 1990). A continuum model of impression formation from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 1-74). San Diego, CA : Academic Press.
21.
Gerger, H., Kley, H., Bohner, G., & Siebler, F. ( 2007). The Acceptance of Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) Scale: Development and validation in German and English. Aggressive Behavior, 33, 420-440.
22.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S.T. ( 1996). The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 70, 491-512.
23.
Horvath, M. A. H., & Brown, J. M. (Eds.). (2009). Rape: Challenging contemporary thinking. Cullompton, UK: Willan .
24.
Keller, J., Bohner, G., & Erb, H.-P. (2000). Intuitive und heuristische Verarbeitung- verschiedene Prozesse? Präsentation einer deutschen Fassung des "Rational-Experiential Inventory" sowie neuer Selbstberichtskalen zur Heuristiknutzung. [Intuitive and heuristic judgement-different processes? Presentation of a German version of the Rational-Experiential Inventory and of new self-report scales of heuristic use]. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 31, 87-101.
25.
Krahé, B. ( 1992). Coping with rape: A social psychological perspective . In L. Montada, S. H. Filipp, & M. J. Lerner (Eds.), Life crises and experiences of loss in adulthood (pp. 477-496). Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum.
26.
Krahé, B., & Temkin, J. ( 2009). Adressing the attitude problem in rape trials: some proposals and methodological considerations. In M. Horvath & J. Brown (Eds.), Rape: Challenging contemporary thinking (pp. 301-321). Cullompton, UK: Willan.
27.
Krahé, B., Temkin, J., & Bieneck, S. ( 2007). Schema-driven information processing in judgments about rape. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 601-619.
28.
Krahé, B., Temkin, J., Bieneck, S., & Berger, A. ( 2008). Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases. Psychology, Crime & Law, 14, 461-479.
29.
Kunda, Z., & Sherman-Williams, B. (1993). Stereotypes and the construal of individuating information. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 90-99.
30.
Leyens, J.-P., Yzerbyt, V.Y., & Schadron, G. ( 1992). Stereotypes and social judgeability. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 91-120). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
31.
Lonsway, K.A., & Fitzgerald, L.F. (1994). Rape myths: In review . Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133-164.
32.
Macrae, C.N., & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2000). Social cognition: Thinking categorically about others. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 93-120.
33.
Neisser, U. ( 1976). Cognition and reality. San Francisco : Freeman.
34.
Paulhus, D.L. ( 1998). Manual for the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding . Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.
35.
Payne, D.L., Lonsway, K.A., & Fitzgerald, L.F. (1999). Rape myth acceptance: Exploration of its structure and its measurement using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 27-68.
36.
Pollard, P. ( 1992). Judgements about victims and attackers in depicted rapes: A review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 307-326.
37.
Rempala, D.M., & Bernieri, F.J. (2005). The consideration of rape: The effect of target information disparity on judgments of guilt. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 536-550.
38.
Rosenthal, R., & Rosnow, R.L. ( 1985). Contrast analysis: Focused comparisons in the analysis of variance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Swim, J.K., Aikin, K.J., Hall, W.S., & Hunter, B.A. ( 1995). Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 199-214.
40.
Tam, K.-P., Au, A., Leung, A.K.-Y. (2008). Attributionally more complex people show less punitiveness and racism. Journal of Research in Personality , 42, 1074-1081.
41.
Taylor, S.E., & Fiske, S.T. ( 1978). Salience, attention, and attribution: Top-of-the-head phenomena. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 11, pp. 249-288). New York: Academic Press.
42.
Temkin, J., & Krahé, B. (2008). Sexual assault and the justice gap: A question of attitude. Oxford, UK: Hart.
43.
Waller, J. ( 1993). Correlation of need for cognition and modern racism . Psychological Reports, 73, 542.
44.
Yzerbyt, V.Y., Schadron, G., Leyens, J.-P., & Rocher, S. ( 1994). Social judgeability: The impact of meta-informational cues on the use of stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 48-55.
