Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Previous research has found that conservatives and liberals emphasize different moral foundations. The purpose of these two studies was to investigate whether moral foundations mediate the relationship between political ideology and attitudes toward rape among U.S. college students. In Study 1, moral foundations fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and rape myth acceptance. Study 2 generally replicated the results of Study 1, with binding foundations demonstrating the most consistent mediating effects. These results suggest that individual differences in moral decision-making may explain the relationship between political ideology and attitudes toward rape.

Keywords

political psychology political ideology morality moral foundations attitudes toward rape rape myth acceptance acceptance of forcible date rape

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

K. B.

Cooper

Okamura

(1997). Individual differences and attitudes toward rape: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 295-315. doi:10.1177/0146167297233008

Burt

M. R.

(1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217-230. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.2.217

Carney

D. R.

Jost

J. T.

Gosling

S. D.

Potter

(2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29, 807-840. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00668.x

Cohen

I. G.

(2015). Are all abortions equal? Should there be exceptions to the criminalization of abortion for rape and incest? Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 43, 87-104. doi:10.1111/jlme.12198

Davies

C. L.

Sibley

C. G.

Liu

J. H.

(2014). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire: Independent scale validation in a New Zealand sample. Social Psychology, 45, 431-436. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000201

Emler

Renwick

Malone

(1983). The relationship between moral reasoning and political orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1073-1080.

Ernsberger

D. J.

Manaster

G. J.

(1981). Moral development, intrinsic religious orientation and denominational teachings. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 104, 23-41.

Federico

C. M.

Weber

C. R.

Ergun

Hunt

(2013). Mapping the connections between politics and morality: The multiple sociopolitical orientations involved in moral intuition. Political Psychology, 34, 589-610. doi:10.1111/pops.12006

Fischer

G. J.

(1986). College student attitudes toward forcible date rape: I. Cognitive predictors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 457-466. doi:10.1007/BF01542310

10.

Fischer

G. J.

(1987). Hispanic and majority student attitudes toward forcible date rape as a function of differences in attitudes toward women. Sex Roles, 17, 93-101. doi:10.1007/BF00287902

11.

Fischer

G. J.

Chen

(1994). The Attitudes Toward Forcible Date Rape (FDR) Scale: Development of a measurement model. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 16, 33-51.

12.

Fishkin

Keniston

MacKinnon

(1973). Moral reasoning and political ideology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 109-119. doi:10.1037/h0034434

13.

Frese

Moya

Megías

J. L.

(2004). Social perception of rape: How rape myth acceptance modulates the influence of situational factors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 143-161. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112365

14.

Gaskins

Golder

Siegel

D. A.

(2013). Religious participation and economic conservatism. American Journal of Political Science, 57, 823-840. doi:10.1111/ajps.12024

15.

Goren

(2005). Party identification and core political values. American Journal of Political Science, 49, 881-896. doi:10.2307/3647703

16.

Graham

Haidt

Nosek

B. A.

(2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029-1046. doi:10.1037/a0015141

17.

Graham

Nosek

B. A.

Haidt

Iyer

Koleva

Ditto

P. H.

(2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 366-385. doi:10.1037/a0021847

18.

Grubb

Tuner

(2012). Attribution of blame in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth acceptance, gender role conformity and substance use on victim blaming. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17, 443-452. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2012.06.002

19.

Haidt

(2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998-1002. doi:10.1126/science.1137651

20.

Haidt

Graham

(2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20, 98-116. doi:10.1007/s11211-007-0034-z

21.

Haidt

Joseph

(2004). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133, 55-66. doi:10.1162/0011526042365555

22.

Hammond

E. M.

Berry

M. A.

Rodriguez

D. N.

(2011). The influence of rape myth acceptance, sexual attitudes, and belief in a just world on attributions of responsibility in a date rape scenario. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 16, 242-252. doi:10.1348/135532510X499887

23.

Hayes

A. F.

(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford Press.

24.

Hunnicutt

(2009). Varieties of patriarchy and violence against women: Resurrecting “patriarchy” as a theoretical tool. Violence Against Women, 15, 553-573. doi:10.1177/1077801208331246

25.

Johnson

B. E.

Kuck

D. L.

Schander

P. R.

(1997). Rape myth acceptance and sociodemographic characteristics: A multidimensional analysis. Sex Roles, 36, 693-707. doi:10.1023/A:1025671021697

26.

Johnson

S. D.

Tamney

J. B.

(1996). The political impact of traditional family values. Sociological Focus, 29, 125-134. doi:10.1080/00380237.1996.10570635

27.

Jost

J. T.

Banaji

M. R.

Nosek

B. A.

(2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25, 881-919. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2004.00402.x

28.

Jost

J. T.

Federico

C. M.

Napier

J. L.

(2009). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 307-333

29.

Kassing

L. R.

Beesley

Frey

L. L.

(2005). Gender role conflict, homophobia, age, and education as predictors of male rape myth acceptance. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 27, 311-328. doi:10.1177/0886260512438281

30.

Kohlberg

Hersh

R. H.

(1977). Moral development: A review of the theory. Theory Into Practice, 16, 53-59. doi:10.1080/00405847709542675

31.

Lawrence

J. A.

(1987). Verbal processing of the defining issues test by principled moral reasoners. Journal of Moral Education, 16, 117-130. doi:10.1080/03057240.1987.10753559

32.

Lewis

G. J.

Bates

T. C.

(2011). From left to right: How the personality system allows basic traits to influence politics via characteristic moral adaptations. British Journal of Psychology, 102, 546-558. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02016.x

33.

Lonsway

K. A.

Fitzgerald

L. F.

(1994). Rape myths: In review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133-164. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00448.x

34.

Lynch

K. R.

Wasarhaley

N. E.

Golding

J. M.

Simcic

(2013). Who bought the drinks? Juror perceptions of intoxication in a rape trial. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28, 3205-3222. doi:10.1177/0886260513496900

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. doi:10.1006/jrpe.1998.2238

36.

Pugh

M. D.

(1983). Contributory fault and rape convictions: Loglinear models for blaming the victim. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 233-242.

37.

Sheldon

J. P.

Parent

S. L.

(2002). Clergy’s attitudes and attributions of blame toward female rape victims. Violence Against Women, 8, 233-256. doi:10.1177/10778010222183026

38.

Tabachnick

B. G.

Fidell

L. S.

(2012). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

39.

Talhelm

Haidt

Oishi

Zhang

Miao

F. F.

Chen

(2014). Liberals think more analytically (more “WEIRD”) than conservatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 250-267. doi:10.1177/0146167214563672

40.

Tatum

J. L.

Foubert

J. D.

(2009). Rape myth acceptance, hypermasculinity, and SAT scores as correlates of moral development: Understanding sexually aggressive attitudes in first-year college men. Journal of College Student Development, 50, 195-209. doi:10.1353/csd.0.0062

41.

Weber

C. R.

Federico

C. M.

(2013). Moral foundations and heterogeneity in ideological preferences. Political Psychology, 34, 107-126. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00922.x

42.

Wheatcroft

J. M.

Wagstaff

G. F.

Moran

(2009). Revictimizing the victim? How rape victims experience the UK legal system. Victims & Offenders, 4, 265-284. doi:10.1080/15564880903048529

43.

Wilson

Goodwin

Beck

(2002). Rape attitude and behavior and their relationship to moral development. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 9, 85-95. doi:10.1375/pplt.2002.9.1.85

The Psychology of the Politics of Rape: Political Ideology,Moral Foundations,and Attitudes Toward Rape

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References