Do social media posts affect rape myth acceptance?

What is it about?

Rape myths, or “attitudes and beliefs that are generally false and that serve to justify male sexual aggression against women,” are widespread in the media. Rape myth acceptance has been linked to negative mental health outcomes and greater sexual violence perpetration. The #MeToo movement was created in support of sexual trauma survivors and was followed by backlash with the #HimToo movement, which supports men that are falsely accused of rape. This study explored the impact of social media posts about rape myths and whether results vary by gender and political views. Participants read social media posts that were either supportive of sexual trauma survivors (#MeToo), supportive of men falsely accused of rape (#HimToo), or unrelated to sexual trauma. We then examined how strongly participants endorsed rape myth acceptance and negative emotions. Results showed that men and people with more socially conservative political views agreed more with rape myths. Results also showed that participants who read #HimToo social media posts (supportive of men falsely accused of rape) reported higher rape myth acceptance. Participants also reported a decrease in negative emotions after viewing the social media posts that were supportive of sexual trauma survivors or unrelated to sexual trauma.

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Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Results from this study suggest that social media content can negatively affect attitudes about rape myths. We also found that some individuals are at high risk for rape myth acceptance beliefs, such as men and those endorsing socially conservative views. Results from this study can inform future research to identify ways of decreasing rape myth acceptance.