The Rape Paradox: The Effect of Anti-Sexual Assault Policies on Gender and Sexual Assault Attitudes, Donations to Sexual Assault Campaigns, and Policy Compliance
Abstract
Guided by feminist criminology, gender, and social psychological theories of status, I tested whether policies aimed at reducing sexual violence paradoxically generate greater resistance to anti-sexual assault policies. Anti-sexual assault policy trainings are potentially undermined by the pervasiveness of traditional gender beliefs that grant males more sexual power than females and underlie sexually violent behavior. I predicted that the tendency for anti-sexual assault policies to utilize gendered language, including sexual assault language, reinforces traditional gender beliefs by making gender differences more salient. Because heterosexual men have higher status, I hypothesized their willingness to comply with anti-sexual assault policies that emphasize the disruption of traditional gender norms, i.e., threaten male privilege, would be low. I predicted that participants would be more likely to endorse and comply with gender-neutral policy language.
To test this, I conducted an online experiment where self-identified heterosexual male participants were randomly assigned to different experimental conditions that varied based on the policy framing. Participants read what they believed to be a university's student handbook policy and then engaged in a series of tasks that assessed the effect of anti-sexual assault policy language on gender and sexual assault attitudes. Immediately following the policy statement intervention, I tested a behavioral measure that requested donations to a campaign that supports sexual assault or consensual sex awareness and a behavioral intention measure that tested compliance to the policy statement. Following this, I measured explicit gender beliefs, ambivalent and hostile sexism, rape myth acceptance, and propensity to commit sexual assault.
Results show that, contradicting the hypotheses, gender-neutral language had no effect(s), whereas emphasizing sexual assault language had a significant effect on donations to organizations and compliance to policies. The differences in policy compliance were spurred by policy language; compliance was higher when the policy used traditional sexual assault language. Larger donations to charitable organizations resulted from policies emphasizing the prevention of sexual assault.
Citation
Boyett, Kirstie Marie (2021). The Rape Paradox: The Effect of Anti-Sexual Assault Policies on Gender and Sexual Assault Attitudes, Donations to Sexual Assault Campaigns, and Policy Compliance. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /195162.