Television sport exposure and rape myth acceptance: a correlational study

The present research investigates the indirect correlation between television sports exposure and rape myth acceptance on an Italian sample. Said effect has been found to be mediated by attitudes that objectify and devalue women, namely hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and sexual objectification (Custers & McNallie, 2017). Drawing from existing literature, the present study contributes to the research on said topic by observing the differences in the correlations between television sports exposure and different types of sports, following the traditional gender classification (Metheny, 1965). Among the types of sports analysed - (1) masculine, and (2) feminine and neutral - the only common mediation effect happened through hostile sexism. Additionally, watching sports traditionally considered feminine or neutral was found to be indirectly and positively associated to rape myth acceptance through the effect of sexual objectification of women. Furthermore, a gender difference is the mediation effect has been found: the only significant mediator for men was hostile sexism, while for women it was benevolent sexism.