When Appearances Deceive: Rape Myth Schemas Influence Attractiveness Effects Across Cultures

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on sexual assault judgements has shown that extra‐evidentiary cues influence perceptions of victims' credibility and responsibility. This study examined how physical attractiveness, rape myth acceptance (RMA), participant sex and cultural context shape victim blame judgements in samples from the United States, Hungary and Türkiye ( N = 979). Participants evaluated sexual assault vignettes depicting different perpetrator‐victim attractiveness pairings and completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Victim blame was highest when an unattractive victim was paired with an attractive perpetrator. Turkish participants attributed greater blame to victims than did participants from the United States and Hungary, whereas the participants' sex had no overall effect. Controlling for RMA eliminated the attractiveness effect, suggesting that appearance‐based judgements are rooted in rape myth schemas rather than independent attractiveness biases. Mediation analyses showed that RMA explained the relationship between participant sex and victim blaming across nearly all conditions and accounted for the differences between the Hungarian and US samples. However, RMA did not explain the elevated victim blaming observed in the Turkish sample. These findings support a schema‐based interpretation of rape myths and suggest that cultural differences in victim blaming reflect additional sociocultural influences beyond rape myth endorsement.