The current research assessed whether a statement by a deviant political ingroup (versus outgroup) member elicited measureable differences on trivialization, cognitive dissonance, rape myth acceptance, or decision to vote for that candidate, and if explicitly “debunking” the statement made by this politician further impacted these variables. Participants were randomly assigned to read a statement made by a Republican or Democratic politician, who would either be an ingroup or outgroup member based on the party affiliation of each participant. Results indicate that while there were no significant differences between Republican or Democratic participants overall, Republicans tended to trivialize the statements made by their ingroup politician more than Democrats. Contrary to the hypotheses, participants experienced similar levels of dissonance across voting decision after reading about a deviant ingroup member. However, consistent with theory, there was significantly lower dissonance among those who read about an outgroup politician and voted for an ingroup politician. While failing to reach statistical significance, a trend towards increased rape myth acceptance among participants who read about a deviant ingroup politician and then voted for them was revealed, and this was fully mediated by level of trivialization.Implications for social identity and cognitive dissonance theories are discussed.
","abstract_html":"<p>The current research assessed whether a statement by a deviant political ingroup (versus outgroup) member elicited measureable differences on trivialization, cognitive dissonance, rape myth acceptance, or decision to vote for that candidate, and if explicitly “debunking” the statement made by this politician further impacted these variables. Participants were randomly assigned to read a statement made by a Republican or Democratic politician, who would either be an ingroup or outgroup member based on the party affiliation of each participant. Results indicate that while there were no significant differences between Republican or Democratic participants overall, Republicans tended to trivialize the statements made by their ingroup politician more than Democrats. Contrary to the hypotheses, participants experienced similar levels of dissonance across voting decision after reading about a deviant ingroup member. However, consistent with theory, there was significantly lower dissonance among those who read about an outgroup politician and voted for an ingroup politician. While failing to reach statistical significance, a trend towards increased rape myth acceptance among participants who read about a deviant ingroup politician and then voted for them was revealed, and this was fully mediated by level of trivialization.Implications for social identity and cognitive dissonance theories are discussed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rosenberg, Rachael"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)","degree_level":"Thesis (open access)","degree_discipline":"Department of Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Karen Naufel","Lois Duke-Whitaker"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:27:41Z","subjects":["ETD","social identity theory","cognitive dissonance","rape myth acceptance","political identification","American Politics","Comparative Politics","Political Theory"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/838","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Karen Naufel","Lois Duke-Whitaker"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Rosenberg, Rachael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2013-09-17T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis (open access)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["ETD","social identity theory","cognitive dissonance","rape myth acceptance","political identification","American Politics","Comparative Politics","Political Theory"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/838"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The current research assessed whether a statement by a deviant political ingroup (versus outgroup) member elicited measureable differences on trivialization, cognitive dissonance, rape myth acceptance, or decision to vote for that candidate, and if explicitly “debunking” the statement made by this politician further impacted these variables. Participants were randomly assigned to read a statement made by a Republican or Democratic politician, who would either be an ingroup or outgroup member based on the party affiliation of each participant. Results indicate that while there were no significant differences between Republican or Democratic participants overall, Republicans tended to trivialize the statements made by their ingroup politician more than Democrats. Contrary to the hypotheses, participants experienced similar levels of dissonance across voting decision after reading about a deviant ingroup member. However, consistent with theory, there was significantly lower dissonance among those who read about an outgroup politician and voted for an ingroup politician. While failing to reach statistical significance, a trend towards increased rape myth acceptance among participants who read about a deviant ingroup politician and then voted for them was revealed, and this was fully mediated by level of trivialization.Implications for social identity and cognitive dissonance theories are discussed.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Impact of Social Identity on Rape Legitimacy and Myth Acceptance"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Karen Naufel","Lois Duke-Whitaker"],"dc:creator":["Rosenberg, Rachael"],"dc:date.available":["2013-09-17T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The current research assessed whether a statement by a deviant political ingroup (versus outgroup) member elicited measureable differences on trivialization, cognitive dissonance, rape myth acceptance, or decision to vote for that candidate, and if explicitly “debunking” the statement made by this politician further impacted these variables. Participants were randomly assigned to read a statement made by a Republican or Democratic politician, who would either be an ingroup or outgroup member based on the party affiliation of each participant. Results indicate that while there were no significant differences between Republican or Democratic participants overall, Republicans tended to trivialize the statements made by their ingroup politician more than Democrats. Contrary to the hypotheses, participants experienced similar levels of dissonance across voting decision after reading about a deviant ingroup member. However, consistent with theory, there was significantly lower dissonance among those who read about an outgroup politician and voted for an ingroup politician. While failing to reach statistical significance, a trend towards increased rape myth acceptance among participants who read about a deviant ingroup politician and then voted for them was revealed, and this was fully mediated by level of trivialization.Implications for social identity and cognitive dissonance theories are discussed.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/838"],"dc:subject":["ETD","social identity theory","cognitive dissonance","rape myth acceptance","political identification","American Politics","Comparative Politics","Political Theory"],"dc:title":["Impact of Social Identity on Rape Legitimacy and Myth Acceptance"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis (open access)"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:27:41Z"}