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Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance

Sex Roles volume 55, pages 481–492 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Rape myth acceptance has been extensively studied. Little research is available, however, on the relationship of this variable to other oppressive belief systems. A sample of 492 male and 506 female college students completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (short form), the Neosexism Scale, the Modern and Old Fashioned Racism Scale, the Modern Homophobia Scale, a modified version of the Economic Belief Scale, the Fraboni Scale of Ageism, and the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (short form). Because there were no existing measures of intolerance toward multiple religions, the Religious Intolerance Scale was developed for this study (using relevant items from the Godfrey Richman Isms Scale). Findings here suggested that greater racism (both modern and old fashioned), sexism (both modern and old fashioned), homophobia (toward both gay men and lesbians), ageism, classism, and religious intolerance were each associated with greater rape myth acceptance. Moreover, each belief system collectively added to the prediction of rape myth acceptance, although sexism has the highest overlap with rape myth acceptance. Although gender did not moderate the relationship between oppressive belief systems and rape myth acceptance, results, across analyses, did indicate that men reported greater rape myth acceptance than women did. Results point to the interrelatedness of rape myth acceptance, racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ageism, and religious intolerance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for PTSD, 3375 Koapaka Street, Suite I-560, Honolulu, HI, 96819, USA

    Allison C. Aosved

  2. Department of Psychology, University of La Verne, 1950 Third Street, La Verne, CA, 91750, USA

    Patricia J. Long

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  1. Allison C. Aosved
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  2. Patricia J. Long
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Correspondence to Allison C. Aosved or Patricia J. Long.

Appendices

Appendix A

Modified Economic Beliefs Scale.

Items

People who stay on welfare have no desire to worka

Welfare keeps the nation in debta

People who don’t make much money are generally unmotivateda

Equal educational opportunities exist for all people in our societya

Homeless people should get their acts together and become productive members of societya

Too many of my tax dollars are spent to take care of those who are unwilling to take care of themselvesa

If every individual would carry his/her own weight, there would be no povertya

There are more poor people than wealthy people in prisons because poor people commit more crimesa

Poor people are lazy

Most poor people should not have children until they can afford to take care of them

Most poor people aren’t very smart

If given the chance, a poor person would be able to keep a job

Most poor people are in debt because they can’t manage their money

People who live in poverty could benefit from educational opportunities

People living in poverty would rather commit crimes for financial gain than work for a living

  1. aItem used originally by Stevenson & Medler (1995).

Appendix B

Religious Intolerance Scale.

Items

Christians are intolerant of people with other religious beliefsa

Catholics have a “holier than thou” attitudea

Jewish people are deceitful and money hungrya

Athiests and agnostics are more self-centered than people from other religious groupsa

Muslims are more treacherous than other groups of religious peoplea

Wiccan and pagan people practice thinly veiled evil

Many of the social problems in the US today are due to non-Christian religious groups

The Hindu beliefs about reincarnation results in people not taking responsibility for their actions in this life since there is always the next life

Despite what Buddhist people may say, Buddhism isn’t really a religion, but more of a philosophy

  1. aItem used originally by Godfrey et al. (2000).

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Aosved, A.C., Long, P.J. Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance. Sex Roles 55, 481–492 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9101-4

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Keywords

  • Rape myth
  • Intolerance
  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • Homophobia