Perception of a Perpetrator as a Successful Person Predicts Decreased Moral Judgment of a Rape Case and Labeling it as Rape

Abstract

Rape cases of celebrities and other influential figures have caught the public eye in recent years. Following the media attention to these cases, people made strong judgments either believing or doubting the victims. Even though some of these men were convicted, they tended to receive little jail time and continued to enjoy people’s sympathy, as in the case of the Hungarian national swimming-coach. We examined whether opinions about the coach’s rape were affected by rape myth acceptance (RMA) and the perception of the perpetrator as a successful person. We conducted two online surveys to reveal this connection at two different points. The case was still somewhat ambiguous at the time of data collection for Study 1 (N = 870) because the perpetrator denied it. However, Study 2 (N = 105) took place after the perpetrator admitted his crime. In line with our predictions, we found that in the uncertain context of Study 1, RMA and the perception of the perpetrator as a successful person predicted whether respondents labeled the incident as rape, and how the perpetrator’s reactions were judged morally. In the certain condition of Study 2, RMA continued to predict moral judgments, but it no longer predicted whether the incident was labeled as rape. These findings showed that in the evaluation of a rape case of a popular and powerful person, perception of the perpetrator’s success can affect the overall evaluation of the case based on the level of RMA. However, such a connection is more pronounced when there are still ambiguities regarding the rape. We therefore suggest that both RMA and the effect of the overall perception of the perpetrator are considered in rape prevention programs, because rape cases rarely appear as certain and unambiguous in the media.

Him Too? Cristiano Ronaldo and the News Coverage of a Rape Case Allegation

“…Yet, the very public status of these men also tends to hinder this opportunity, exemplifying how power differentials between men and women are played out in the public arena. In the case of celebrities, these power differentials correspond to the double standards placed on the famous men who can feed their admiration into rape myths to escape accusations in the public mind, versus the anonymous women who are positioned in these rape myths as the deserving victim (Nyúl et al 2018).…”

Rape myth acceptance is lower and predicts harsher evaluations of rape among impacted people

“…We argue that this context can create norms that sanction rape myth acceptance and can therefore affect the degree to which people label cases as rape. As previous research has shown, such labeling can fundamentally affect the overall evaluation of the case and the treatment of perpetrators and survivors (Nyúl et al, 2018).…”

Rape myth acceptance as a relevant psychological construct in a gender-unequal context: The Hungarian adaptation of the updated Illinois rape myths acceptance scale

“…Therefore, McMahon and Farmer (2011, 19 items) changed the items, updated the language, and eliminated three subscales from IRMAS and constructed the Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (short form) to measure more contemporary and subtle forms of rape myths. It was used, for example, for longitudinally investigating the long-term effects of violent video gameplay on sexist attitudes and rape myth acceptance (Kühn et al, 2019), and exploring the relation between prior victimization, just world beliefs, and rape myth acceptance (Vonderhaar & Carmody, 2015), and examining the role of rape myth acceptance in the evaluation of real rape cases (Nyúl et al, 2018), and exploring the relation between rape myth acceptance and bystander behavior (Bennett et al, 2017).…”