Investigating Rape Myth in the Prism of the Big Five Factors of Personality: An Explorative Study

Abstract

Background: A society’s perception of rape is largely determined by Rape Myth, an important psychological construct, whose endorsement promotes rape supportive attitudes among people. Again, the extent of people perceiving the various forms of sexual interactions are also largely affected by different personality dispositions. Aim: The present study attempts to assess the impacts of the big five factors of personality (often termed as the OCEAN factors) on people’s acceptance of rape myths. Method and Materials: A total 608 young adults (370 males and 238 females), who are the students of colleges and universities in Tripura, India participated in this study and were administered with the updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA) Scale and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory in order to measure the aforesaid study variables. Statistical Analyses: Product moment correlation and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to fulfil the objectives of the study. Results and Conclusion: Results in the Structural Equation Modeling model revealed that RMA is significantly correlated to and predicted by the neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness factors of personality. However, RMA and the conscientiousness factor were not found to be significantly related. While neuroticism was positively correlated to RMA, a negative correlation was found between the RMA and the other four factors of personality. The findings add concrete knowledge to what was known about rape-supportive attitudes till date. The study shall serve as crucial literature to future works on rape and rape myths.