The Effect of Gender Role Expectations, Sexism, and Rape Myth Acceptance on the Social Perception of Sexual Violence: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Recent systematic reviews have highlighted the role of certain attitudes in shaping the social perception of sexual violence. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effect of sexism, gender-role expectations, and rape myth acceptance on the social perception of sexual violence. It also aims to determine whether attitudinal dimensions, participant gender, or the dyadic composition of sexual violence incidents moderate this relationship. A literature search covered published and unpublished manuscripts from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2023, across PsychArticles, Proquest, and Google Scholar. Manuscripts had to measure at least one attitude and assess participants’ perception of material depicting sexual violence between two adults. Data from 40 studies from 10 different countries, involving 12,283 participants, revealed a significant association between attitudes and the social perception of sexual violence ( r = .425, p < .001). Meta-regression highlighted the significant contributions of greater gender role expectations, hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and rape myth acceptance to the social perception of sexual violence incidences. Their combined effect correlated with increased victim blame ( r = .558), reduced victim credibility ( r = −.492), decreased perception of incident severity ( r = −.363) and victim trauma ( r = −.390), heightened perceptions of victim pleasure ( r = .417), as well as reduced perpetrator blame ( r = −.288) and sanction severity ( r = −.191). These tendencies were even more pronounced in cases involving same-gender perpetrators and victims. Participant gender was not a significant moderator. These findings underscore the need for prevention efforts to address broader gender biases and power dynamics.

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