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Citation |
Bryant JA, Mealey L, Herzog E, Rychwalski W. J. Psychol. Human Sex. 2001; 13(1): 55-66. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2001, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group) |
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DOI |
unavailable |
PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
For decades researchers have been examining attitudes, cultural beliefs, and stereotypes of rape known as "rape myths," yet demand characteristics of laboratory research can affect participant responses. To investigate one relevant situational variable, 83 young adults approached in a public mall were given the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (RMAS), by one of two female researchers. One researcher dressed conservatively while the other dressed provocatively; half way through the study the researchers switched clothing to counterbalance any other experimenter effects besides that of clothing. A 2 3 2 between subjects ANOVA found that: (1) as expected, men scored higher than women on the RMAS; (2) surprisingly, both men and women scored higher on the RMAS when the researcher was dressed conservatively than dressed provocatively; (3) this paradoxical effect of researcher's clothing was more pronounced for men's scores than women's. We interpret this experimenter effect in two ways: (1) the respondents may not have wanted to offend the researcher dressed in provocative clothing or (2) respondents felt more free to share their RMA with the researcher who was dressed conservatively. The large effect of a simple situational variable calls into question the generalizability of specific studies of sexual attitudes. (Abstract Adapted from Source: Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The Haworth Press) |