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Ammsa 21
Ammsa 21
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Jesús L Megías
University of Granada
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All content following this page was uploaded by Gerd Bohner on 23 September 2023.
Gerd Bohnera, Alexa Weissa, Cindy Schircha, Lea Zöllnera, Aldona Lipińskab, María-
José Semperec and Jesús L. Megíasc
a
Bielefeld University; bUniversity of Gdańsk; cUniversidad de Granada
Acknowledgments / Agradecimientos
The reported research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
under Grant PID2019-104239GB-I00/ SRA (State Research Agency / 10.13039 /
501100011033) and FEDER/Andalusian Government-Department of Economy and
Knowledge/ Project B-SEJ-135-UGR18. Thanks are due to Heike Gerger and Hanna
Kley, who served as expert interviewees in the process of item generation, as well as to
Paul J. Easterbrook, Bettina Frese, and Laura Saldarriaga Santa for their valuable help
with translating and back-translating the item pool for AMMSA-21. / La investigación
reportada fue financiada por el Ministerio español de Ciencia e Innovación con la
subvención PID2019-104239GB-I00/ SRA (Organismo Estatal de Investigación /
10.13039 / 501100011033) y FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Economía y
Conocimiento/ Proyecto B-SEJ-135-UGR18. Nuestro agradecimiento a Heike Gerger y
Hanna Kley, que actuaron como expertas entrevistadoras en el proceso de creación de
los ítems, y también a Paul J. Easterbrook, Bettina Frese, y Laura Saldarriaga Santa
por su valiosa ayuda con la traducción y retrotraducción del conjunto de los ítems para
AMMSA-21.
AMMSA-21 2
ABSTRACT
The authors present a revised version of the Acceptance of Modern Myths About Sexual
Aggression scale (AMMSA-21) in four languages (English, German, Polish, and
Spanish) and examine its reliability and validity (total N = 1,459). AMMSA-21
addresses themes emerging in recent public discourse (e.g., beliefs about false
accusations) and contents similar to the original scale (e.g., antagonism toward victim's
demands); with 21 items, it is 30% shorter than the original. Factor analyses suggested
that AMMSA-21 may be treated as a unidimensional construct. Across the four
language versions, AMMSA-21 showed high internal consistency and criterion validity
(positive correlations with hostile and benevolent sexism, social dominance orientation,
right-wing authoritarianism); its scores were unrelated to socially desirable responding.
Also, AMMSA-21 predicted judgments of victim blaming and rape proclivity in
relation to acquaintance-rape scenarios. Mean differences across language versions
(Spanish < English = German < Polish) are discussed in terms of cultural influences. In
sum, AMMSA-21 represents a reliable, valid, and economical measure of contemporary
sexual aggression myths.
KEYWORDS
attitudes, rape myths, scale construction, sexual aggression myths, sexual violence
RESUMEN
Los autores presentan una versión revisada de la escala Aceptación de Mitos Modernos
sobre la Agresión Sexual (AMMSA-21), en cuatro idiomas (inglés, alemán, polaco, y
español) y analizan su fiabilidad y validez (total N = 1,459). AMMSA-21 aborda temas
que emergen en el discurso público reciente (por ejemplo, creencias sobre acusaciones
falsas) y contenidos similares a los de la escala original (por ejemplo, antagonismo
hacia las demandas de la víctima); con 21 ítems, es un 30% más corta que la escala
original. Los análisis factoriales sugirieron que AMMSA-21 puede ser tratada como un
constructo unidimensional. En las cuatro versiones idiomáticas, AMMSA-21 mostró
una alta consistencia interna y validez de criterios (correlaciones positivas con sexismo
hostil y benevolente, orientación a la dominancia social, autoritarismo de derechas); sus
puntuaciones no se relacionaron con la deseabilidad. Además, AMMSA-21 predijo
opiniones asociadas con culpar a la víctima y proclividad hacia la violación por parte de
un conocido. Las diferencias medias entre las versiones en los diferentes idiomas
(español < inglés = alemán < polaco) se discuten en términos de influencias culturales.
En resumen, AMMSA-21 representa una medida fiable, válida y económica sobre los
mitos contemporáneos acerca de las agresiones sexuales.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Actitudes, mitos sobre la violación, construcción de escala, mitos sobre la agresión
sexual, violencia sexual
2020) with increasing prevalence rates (Borumandnia et al., 2020). Its negative effects
on victims' physical and mental health are well documented (e.g., Dilip & Bates, 2021).
Recently, media coverage of prominent cases and the #MeToo movement have raised
public awareness of the issue. Nonetheless, many incidents of sexual violence remain
unreported (e.g., Saldarriaga et al., 2020), while victim blaming and exoneration of
perpetrators are widespread (e.g., Bohner et al., 2009; van der Bruggen & Grubb, 2014).
Research on the causes of sexually aggressive behavior and on related belief systems is
myths about sexual aggression (AMMSA). The original AMMSA scale (Gerger et al.,
2007) extended the concept of rape myths by incorporating beliefs about a wider range
of sexual aggression, including sexual assault and harassment. Its authors defined myths
. . that serve to deny, downplay, or justify sexually aggressive behavior that men
commit against women" (Gerger et al., 2007, p. 425). Inspired by research on modern
sexism and racism (Swim et al., 1995), the AMMSA scale features more subtle item
content than previous rape myth scales (cf. Payne et al., 1999), recognizing that
more importantly, that the content of sexual aggression myths may have changed over
time. Some of the themes that have guided item generation for the original AMMSA
scale were thus analogous to those addressed in Swim and colleagues' (1995) modern
sexism scale: denial of the scope of the problem, antagonism toward victims' demands,
and lack of support for policies designed to alleviate the effects of sexual violence. Two
further themes were more specific to sexual aggression: beliefs that male coercion forms
AMMSA-21 4
a natural part of sexual relationships, and beliefs that exonerate perpetrators by blaming
the victim or the circumstances (Gerger et al., 2007, p. 425). Despite this breadth of
item content, the 30-item AMMSA scale turned out to measure an essentially
The AMMSA scale was initially developed in English and German (Gerger et
al., 2007); later, translations to Spanish (Megías et al., 2011), Greek (Hantzi et al.,
2015), Japanese (Imakita et al., 2019), and French (Courtois et al., 2021) were validated,
as well as a Russian 16-item short form (Khokhlova & Bohner, 2020). Some researchers
also used ad-hoc translations to other languages (e.g., Gul & Schuster, 2020; Milesi et
al., 2020). In January 2022 the Web of Science listed 162 articles citing Gerger et al.
(2007); these included 56 articles reporting research in which some version of the
AMMSA scale was used. Several studies have addressed cognitive, motivational, and
behavioral functions of AMMSA (for a review, see Bohner et al., in press), showing
Schapansky, 2018), defendant guilt, and victim blame in cases of sexual violence (e.g.,
Eyssel & Bohner, 2011; Milesi et al., 2020). Experimental studies have shown that
AMMSA is linked to motivated social cognition, such as selective visual attention (e.g.,
(Süssenbach et al., 2017). Furthermore, AMMSA has been shown to predict rape
proclivity (e.g., Eyssel et al., 2009). Hence, prior research attests to the relevance of a
myths may change over time (Gerger et al., 2007), fourteen years after the original
scale's presentation, we set out to update its content by re-examining current myths.
We pursued three main goals: (1) to update item content so it reflects contemporary
AMMSA-21 5
scientific and public discourse, (2) to validate four language versions simultaneously,
and (3) to shorten the scale while preserving its high validity and coverage of
contemporary myths, using subtle item content. Specifically, we aimed for a scale with
21 items (thus 30% shorter than the original AMMSA), to be called AMMSA-21, its
name referring both to its number of items and to the year of its creation.1 We
German, Polish, and Spanish, thus further extending the scale's applicability. First, a
preliminary scale consisting of 50 items was assembled in German; then four language
versions of those 50 items were created. Based on Internet surveys, the preliminary
scales' dimensionality was examined, and four 21-item instruments were generated
The nomological network of AMMSA-21 was examined via its correlations with
constructs varying in conceptual similarity that had been assessed concurrently (see
would correlate highly with hostile sexism (HS; Glick & Fiske, 1996), a closely related
construct, and somewhat less highly with benevolent sexism (BS; Glick & Fiske, 1996).
This is because BS represents more subjectively positive attitudes toward women than
do both HS and AMMSA; nevertheless, people high (vs. low) in BS also blame a
female victim more if they perceive her behavior as inconsistent with traditional gender
roles (Abrams et al., 2003). Other constructs showing some conceptual overlap with
AMMSA-21 are social dominance orientation (SDO; Ho et al., 2015) and right-wing
authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1988). Both SDO and RWA represent ideologies
that foster prejudice against outgroup members and contribute to justifying social
inequality (Jost et al., 2003). Sexual aggression myths also fulfill a system-justifying
AMMSA-21 6
high-status group (men) that is exonerated, and prototypical victims belong to a low-
status group (women) that is denied support (Bohner et al., 2009). Accordingly, we
hypothesized that SDO and RWA would each correlate moderately highly with
AMMSA-21. Drawing on previous research with AMMSA (e.g., Eyssel & Bohner,
2011; Eyssel et al., 2009), we further hypothesized that AMMSA-21 would predict
judgments of victim blaming and rape proclivity in relation to two rape scenarios.
uncorrelated with a measure of socially desirable responding (see Gerger et al., 2007).
Method
To generate an initial item pool in German, we first included several original AMMSA
items with high item-to-total correlations (see Gerger et al., 2007; Study 4). The
comprehensibility. Secondly, we scanned other rape myth scales, including the revised
Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (IRMA) scale (McMahon & Farmer, 2011), for suitable
item content. Thirdly, we scrutinized relevant recent publications and the content of
general (online) media. The output of this search included a doctoral thesis (Clay, 2019)
whose author compared rape myths appearing in user commentaries on Facebook with
the contents of the AMMSA and IRMA scales. Clay concluded that—despite much
addressed in the scales. This includes the beliefs that women's reports of sexual
aggression are often false (especially if delayed) and that women frequently accuse men
because of selfish motives. Our own searches of media contents yielded similar results.
relevant content and their fit with our definition of sexual aggression myths (Gerger et
al., 2007—see above), thus generating a pool of 56 items. These represented seven
content categories: (a) stereotypes about the perpetrator (e.g., "Often, rapists are men
who cannot find a partner"), (b) stereotypes about rape (e.g., "If a woman is actually
raped, the complaint is immediately reported"), (c) prevalence of false accusations (e.g.,
"These days, a large number of rape accusations are false"), (d) beliefs that women lie
out of selfish motives (e.g., "Women often accuse prominent men of rape in order to
further their own career"), (e) blaming the woman (e.g., "If a woman allows a man to
kiss and touch her intimately, then she also wants more"), (f) stereotypes about women's
behavior (e.g., "Many women like to submit to the sexual wishes of men"), (g)
antagonism toward victims' demands and lack of support for anti-violence policies (e.g.,
To optimize the item pool, we next conducted cognitive interviews with German-
speaking volunteers (3 female and 3 male; age 20 to 50 years). For economic reasons
we had to content ourselves with recruiting a small sample of people from the same
probing: Participants first completed the items on their own, using a response scale from
1 (do not agree at all) to 7 (completely agree). Then they discussed each item and their
responses with the interviewer, who asked questions concerning the understanding of
content and concepts. Attention was given to terms or phrases that had previously been
AMMSA-21 8
scale value to check how participants interpreted and applied the response options.
addressed. Sources of difficulty and deficits of item wordings thus identified were
Then we conducted expert interviews with two authors of the first AMMSA
scale (Gerger et al., 2007), Dr. Heike Gerger and Dr. Hanna Kley. The experts read all
items before discussing them one by one. As a result of the expert interviews, several
new items were added, and some item wordings were revised. After the cognitive
interviews and the expert interviews, the item pool consisted of 50 items.
Next, the entire pool of 50 candidate items was translated from German into
For each language, one bilingual person translated the items from German to the target
language and another bilingual person translated it back to German. Any differences in
meaning between the original and back-translated versions were thoroughly discussed
and resolved by consensus among the authors and translators. In fact, the translation and
backtranslation worked very well overall. There were hardly any disagreements
between the original and initial back-translated versions, and those disagreements that
arose were easily resolved. The result of the translation process were some
To examine the scales' dimensionality and validity, online surveys in each of the four
Participants
Heterogeneous convenience samples were recruited via posters, flyers, social network
AMMSA-21 9
were also recruited via the online platform Prolific (https://www.prolific.co/). Following
analyses, we aimed for at least 300 participants per language version. In total, 1,459
participants (463 male, 988 female, 8 diverse) who had completed at least 40 of the 50
candidate AMMSA items were retained for analyses.2 Most participants were between
21 and 35 years of age (58%), had at least a high-school level degree (93%), and were
Procedures followed APA ethical guidelines and were approved by institutional review
boards. Instructions stated that we were interested in opinions regarding various issues,
stressing that some questions may be unpleasant because they address topics of sexual
aggression, and that participation was voluntary and anonymous. Small rewards were
sample also nationality and country of residence) was assessed. The main part of the
assessing validation constructs; these were presented in the same order as described
below. Unless reported otherwise, response scales went from 1 (do not agree at all) to 7
(agree completely); for each construct, a participant's score was defined as the mean
Social Desirability. In the English, German, and Polish surveys, social desirability was
Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 1998; German: Musch et al., 2002;
AMMSA-21 10
Polish: Zinczuk & Draheim, 2009; item example: "I never take things that don't belong
to me"). The Spanish survey featured a short form of the Marlowe–Crowne Social
Desirability Scale with a true–false response format (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960;
Spanish: Ferrando & Chico, 2000; item example: "I am always polite, even with
unpleasant people"). Internal consistencies were modest (see Table S2, Supplementary
candidate AMMSA items were presented after the social desirability items.
Hostile and Benevolent Sexism. Participants completed a short form of the Ambivalent
Sexism Inventory (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996; German: Eckes & Six-Materna, 1999;
Polish: Mikołajczak & Pietrzak, 2014; Spanish: Expósito et al., 1998) containing items
assessing HS (e.g., "Most women fail to appreciate fully all that men do for them") and
BS (e.g., "Women should be cherished and protected by men"). Item selection for the
short form was based on published information regarding the scale in each language; we
selected those items from each ASI subscale that had the highest item-total correlations.
Both subscales showed high internal consistencies (see Table S2, Supplementary
Material).
Social Dominance Orientation. To assess SDO, we used short forms of the SDO(7)
scale (Ho et al., 2015; German: Saldarriaga et al., 2017; Polish: pilot version by T.
Besta, personal communication, January 15, 2020; Spanish: Carvacho & Manzi, 2017;
item example: "It's probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other
groups are at the bottom"). Internal consistencies were satisfactory to high (see Table
RWA scale (Altemeyer, 1988; German: Funke, 2005; Polish: Radkiewicz, 2011;
AMMSA-21 11
Spanish: Carvacho & Manzi, 2017; item example: "What our country really needs is a
strong, determined leader who will crush evil, and take us back to our true path.")
Internal consistencies were satisfactory to high (see Table S2, Supplementary Material).
Victim Blaming and Rape Proclivity. The final part of the survey consisted of two
stereotype (McKimmie et al., 2020), mentioning, for example, that the victim had spent
a weekend with the perpetrator at his holiday home. Each scenario was accompanied by
three items assessing victim blaming (e.g., "How much is Tanya responsible for what
happened?"; scale from 1 [not at all] to 7 [completely]) and two items assessing rape
proclivity (e.g., "Would you have behaved like Michael in this situation?"; scale from 1
[most certainly not] to 7 [most certainly yes]). A victim blaming score and a rape
proclivity score were formed by averaging across the respective items across both
scenarios. The rape proclivity score was analyzed for male participants only (see Gerger
et al., 2007). Internal consistencies for both indices are shown in Table S2,
Supplementary Material. We note that, for rape proclivity, Cronbach's alphas were low
Results
Factor Analyses
took three steps (see Gerger et al., 2007): Firstly, we extracted maximum-likelihood
factors and inspected the scree plots of initial eigenvalues. This consistently suggested a
single-factor solution, with eigenvalues declining sharply after the first component, and
then trailing off evenly. The first five eigenvalues were, English: 17.89, 2.53, 2.15, 1.75,
1.58; German: 16.48, 2.60, 2.16, 1.55, 1.44; Polish: 19.33, 2.39, 1.69, 1.50, 1.35;
AMMSA-21 12
parallel analysis (Horn, 1965) on each language version (as did Gerger et al., 2007).
generating distributions of eigenvalues from random datasets of the given sample size
exceeds the 95th percentile of the corresponding random distribution. These analyses
yielded rather consistent results across languages: In German, Polish, and Spanish, three
could be retained.
Thirdly, we ran factor analyses with the number of factors fixed according to the
allow for correlated factors. These analyses revealed meaningful and similar factor
structures,4 but the intercorrelations of factors were high (English: .41 to .68; German:
.63 to .67; Polish: .66 to .75; Spanish: .50 to .70). In the interest of simplicity we thus
decided to disregard possible multifactor structures in further item selection (see Gerger
et al., 2007). However, for readers who may be interested in creating their own multi-
Given the factor analysis results, we treated the 50 items as measuring a unidimensional
construct. We then proceeded to optimize item selection across the four language
versions simultaneously, using a top-down approach. We used three criteria for the
selection of matching subsets of 21 items from the pool of 50 items in each language
version. The first criterion was high item-total correlations; this was done to establish
AMMSA-21 13
high internal consistency of the resulting scale. The second criterion was item means
close to the midpoint of the response scale, thus avoiding extreme means in order to
myth scales, the common problem are extremely low (rather than high) mean responses
(see Gerger et al., 2007, p. 427), we operationalized the second criterion by selecting
those items with higher means. The third criterion was small gender differences at the
item level. Although gender differences in sexual aggression myths are typically
avoid items with very large differences, as these might reflect own-gender bias on top of
To optimize item selection across the four language versions, we first assigned
ranks to each item within each language version according to each criterion; reliability
analysis indicated similar rank orderings across countries for item-total correlations
(Cronbach's alpha = .90), item means (alpha = .84), and gender differences (alpha =
.76). Thus, we next computed the mean rank of each item on each criterion across the
four language versions, and then analyzed the intercorrelations of the three criteria. This
showed that the ranks of means were independent of the ranks of both item-total
correlations, r(48) = -.10, p = .49, and gender differences, r(48) = -.10, p = .51, whereas
the ranks of item-total correlations and gender differences were negatively correlated,
r(48) = -.47, p < .001. Thus, good items in terms of item-total correlations tended to
show larger gender differences. We decided to give the criterion of low gender
reflecting valid construct variance, see above), creating an item-quality index that
AMMSA-21 14
averaged the three rankings, with a double weighting each for the ranks regarding item-
total correlations and means, and a single weighting for the ranks regarding small
gender differences. This index was consistent across language versions (Cronbach's
alpha = .83), so we initially inspected the items taking the first 21 positions in terms of
ranks averaged across the four language versions. It turned out that two of those items
had good ranks based on their position in only one of the four language versions; we
therefore replaced them with the items on positions 22 and 23, whose ranks were more
These procedures resulted in the AMMSA-21 scale, which represented all the
content categories discussed in the Introduction, albeit to different extents, with some
items addressing more than one category. Two of the AMMSA-21 items are identical to
items from the original AMMSA scale, and seven are modified versions of original
items. See the Appendix for the English item wordings along with information on their
The internal consistency of the AMMSA-21 scale was excellent in all four languages,
with Cronbach's alphas of .93 (English), .92 (German), .93 (Polish), and .94 (Spanish).
Final item-total correlations ranged from .44 to .79 (English),.45 to .76 (German),.48 to
.80 (Polish), and .37 to .79 (Spanish), so we defined the mean across the 21 items as the
AMMSA-21 score. Means of AMMSA-21 were highest for the Polish version (M =
3.61, SD = 1.13) and lowest for the Spanish version (M = 2.15, SD = 0.95), with scores
for the English (M = 3.03, SD = 1.05) and German versions (M = 2.93, SD = 0.96)
falling in between, p < .05 for all pairwise comparisons except between German and
English, Duncan posthoc test.5 Furthermore, AMMSA-21 scores were higher for males
than for females in each language (English: M = 3.39, SD = 0.99 vs. M = 2.64, SD =
AMMSA-21 15
0.88 vs. M = 3.45, SD = 1.12; Spanish: M = 2.54, SD = 1.11 vs. M = 2.03, SD = 0.86),
all t > 4.10, p < .001. The distributions of AMMSA-21 scores were symmetrical for
both the German version (skewness = 0.035; SEskewness = 0.140) and the English version
(Skew = 0.065; SESkew = 0.129), but positively skewed for the Spanish version (Skew =
1.275; SESkew = 0.131) and negatively skewed for the Polish version (Skew = -0.450;
SESkew = 0.115).6
AMMSA-21 with each validation construct in each language version. The correlation
patterns were highly similar across language versions (see Table 1). As hypothesized,
.68), and the former correlations were larger than the latter in each language version, all
z > 4.9, all p < .001.7 Also as hypothesized, AMMSA-21 was correlated positively with
SDO (r = .51 to .58) and RWA (r = .63 to .74) in all language versions. Thus, people
endorsing sexual aggression myths also supported sexist and other prejudiced ideologies
that serve to justify social inequality. These results replicate findings obtained with
German, Russian, English, Spanish, and Greek versions of the original AMMSA scale
(Gerger et al., 2007; Hantzi et al., 2015; Khokhlova & Bohner, 2020; Megías et al.,
21 with victim blaming across all language versions (r = .54 to .69) as hypothesized.
The general belief in sexual aggression myths thus translates into anti-victim judgments
pertaining to specific cases of sexual violence. Also, male participants with higher
AMMSA-21 scores tended to report higher rape proclivity, stating that they would be
AMMSA-21 16
more likely to behave like the perpetrator and enjoy getting their way (r = .17 to .37).
Spanish version.
21 scores were essentially uncorrelated with socially desirable responding. Only in the
Polish version, there was a significant but small negative correlation, r = -.14. Thus,
responses to AMMSA-21 do not reflect impression management to any great extent (see
Discussion
Our attempt to create a revised AMMSA scale was successful. Based on analyses of the
scientific literature and general media as well as interviews with laypersons and experts,
we had generated a pool of 50 items expressing current beliefs about sexual aggression
against women. After thorough translations and backtranslations of the complete item
pool, the final AMMSA-21 scale was generated in English, German, Polish, and
versions (see Gerger et al., 2007). The result is an economic, reliable, and valid scale
that shows some overlap with its predecessor (two original items were kept and seven
were modified) but also shows improvements in several respects: AMMSA-21 (1)
updates the content of sexual aggression myths, (2) features four language versions that
were validated simultaneously, and (3) is shorter than its predecessor while continuing
Updated Content
One content area more visible in AMMSA-21 than in the original AMMSA scale are
beliefs about the prevalence of false accusations, combined with the idea that women lie
AMMSA-21 17
about sexual aggression for selfish motives. Such themes had been prominently covered
in early questionnaires measuring rape myth acceptance. For example, 9 out of 19 items
of the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980) address the victim's credibility or
motives for falsely reporting a rape. While less prominent at the time of the first
AMMSA scale's development, these themes now appear to rebound in both social media
discourses (Clay, 2019) and the print media (Sacks et al., 2018). Although false
accusations are objectively rare (e.g., Kelly & Lovett, 2009), widespread beliefs that
they are frequent may deter victims of sexual violence from reporting; it was therefore
important to include such beliefs in the AMMSA-21 scale. Other content areas
prominent in AMMSA-21 are stereotypes about women's behavior and about rape;
together, such beliefs provide a narrow definition of what constitutes a "real rape"
(McKimmie et al., 2020) and thus a justification for dismissing victims' experiences.
Like its predecessor, AMMSA-21 still includes items that reflect antagonism toward
victims' demands and lack of support for anti-violence policies. The AMMSA-21 scale
thus retains a focus on beliefs that address sexual violence from a social institution and
policy perspective, which had first been added by Gerger et al. (2007) to complement
the incident-based perspective more typical of previous scales (e.g., Payne et al., 1999).
Despite its breadth of content, factor analyses of the 50-item pool did not suggest a
several nonrandom factors in each language version (see Footnote 4), these were highly
final scale. Nonetheless, we provide multifactor loadings of all items from the 50-item
so based on their own item selection (one such project is under way with a Turkish
AMMSA-21 18
adaptation; Korkmaz, 2022). Importantly, item selection for the final AMMSA-21 scale
was done by simultaneously applying the same criteria in all four language versions.
We could thus present useful updates in English, German, and Spanish, the three major
languages of the original AMMSA scale,8 as well as, for the first time, an AMMSA
scale in Polish. This will contribute to research with the AMMSA-21 being conducted
in many cultural contexts. We also hope that it will encourage more research with
samples from more than one language group – as had been done occasionally with the
original AMMSA scale (e.g., Gul & Schuster, 2020; Helmke et al., 2014; Milesi et al.,
2020).
A Shorter Scale
The AMMSA-21 is 30% shorter than its predecessor while maintaining high
advantages. Not only does it save time for respondents; in the context of a longer
survey, a reduction by nine items may also make the crucial difference in a participant's
decision between completing the questionnaire and dropping out prematurely. Finally,
length, a shorter scale may save researchers considerable costs or alternatively allow
them to include other content. We also note that, in some contexts (e.g., telephone
surveys; Süssenbach & Bohner, 2011), even shorter versions may be desirable. The first
The correlations of AMMSA-21 scores with other constructs support the scale's
validity. Criterion validity was established via high correlations of AMMSA-21 with
hostile attitudes toward women, as measured by the HS subscale of the ASI (Glick &
Fiske, 1996). Correlations of AMMSA-21 with less openly hostile sexist attitudes, as
AMMSA-21 19
measured by the BS subscale of the ASI, were also positive, but lower than those of
AMMSA-21 with HS. This matches previous findings where BS predicted the blaming
of rape victims who departed from traditional gender roles (Abrams et al., 2003).
derogation of disadvantaged groups, such as RWA (Altemeyer, 1988) and SDO (Ho et
al., 2015). These results complement previous research showing that sexual aggression
(Paulhus, 1998), speaking to the scale's discriminant validity. These results were
consistent across language versions and replicate similar patterns known from the
specific rape cases. In response to two scenarios, participants with higher AMMSA-21
scores were more likely to blame female victims of sexual violence. These findings
were again consistent across language versions and comparable to results with the
original AMMSA scale (Eyssel & Bohner, 2011; Gerger et al., 2007). We further
analyzed the correlations of male participants' AMMSA-21 scores and their self-
hypothesized in the Polish, English, and German versions, but nonsignificant for the
Spanish version. The lack of a clearer pattern in the Spanish version may partly be
explained by the small sample size and the skewed distribution of the rape proclivity
the German and English versions yielded symmetrical distributions with means near 3
AMMSA-21 20
on a 1-7 scale, which replicates findings with the original AMMSA scale (Gerger et al.,
2007, pp. 431-432), the Spanish version yielded a positively skewed distribution with
lower means, and the Polish version a negatively skewed distribution with higher
means. Given the care we had taken in simultaneous scale construction, we interpret this
pattern as reflecting true attitude differences between language samples. Whereas the
English-speaking participants were residents of various countries (63% UK, 29% USA,
8% other), the German, Polish, and Spanish samples consisted mainly of residents of
Germany, Poland, and Spain, respectively. As their age distribution and education level
were similar, differences among these samples may indicate cultural influences.
Although Poland and Spain share a Catholic history, recent gender-related and
sexuality-related attitudes are less conservative in Spain than in Poland (e.g., Brandt,
2011; O'Reilly et al., 2014). Also, the gender equality index (GEI), a measure of gender
equality in terms of work, money, knowledge, power, and health (European Institute for
GEI (67.5) is close to the European Union average (67.8), Poland's GEI (55.8) is
substantially lower, and Spain's GEI (72.0) is considerably higher.9 The low AMMSA-
21 scores in Spain may reflect recent societal developments, as the means of the original
Spanish AMMSA scale (Megías et al., 2011) had been in the same range as those
reported by Gerger et al. (2007) for German samples, whereas a recent representative
survey conducted in Spain (Sirvent Garcia Del Valle, 2020) found rather low levels of
We have presented a scale that was validated across four languages and is thus suitable
for research in different cultures. We also found tentative evidence that cultural
our samples was limited regarding the breadth of educational backgrounds; also, male
participants were underrepresented in three out of four samples. It would thus be useful
samples (cf. Süssenbach & Bohner, 2011). This would enable a more systematic
will continue and extend work on the psychological functions of sexual aggression
myths (Bohner et al., 2009, in press). Apart from such basic research, the AMMSA-21
scale should also prove valuable in studies aimed at evaluating the success of anti-
Notes
1
We did not see a cogent argument for any particular number of items to be determined
either a priori or based on the data. Therefore, we opted for matching the scale's item
number with the year of its creation.
2
The number of participants dropped from 617 initial participants to 451 final
participants in the Polish sample; from 347 to 303 in the German sample; from 369 to
359 in the English sample; and from 438 to 346 in the Spanish sample. These
differences in drop-out rates may be explained by slight variations in procedures: In
the Polish-language survey, it was not possible to skip items, which may have caused
more participants to leave prematurely, whereas in the English-language survey, most
participants were recruited via an online service provider, which typically results in
high completion rates.
3
English-language participants received £1.70 (if recruited via Prolific) or could win
one of five vouchers worth £20 or $25. German-language participants could select a
charity that would receive a €1 donation and win a voucher worth €50. Polish-
language participants received no reward. Spanish-language participants received
partial course credit or could win one of two vouchers worth €50.
4
The first two factors were highly similar across language samples. Factor 1 showed
high loadings of items from the content categories prevalence of false accusations and
beliefs that women lie out of selfish motives; Factor 2 combined high loadings of items
from the categories blaming the woman and stereotypes about women's behavior.
Factor 3 was somewhat less consistent but always featured three high-loading items
AMMSA-21 22
from the category antagonism toward victims' demands and lack of support for anti-
violence policies. In the English version, the additional Factor 4 contained mainly
items from the categories stereotypes about the perpetrator and stereotypes about
rape; in the other language versions, these contents were spread across the first three
factors without a consistent pattern.
5
These differences between language versions persisted in an analysis of covariance
using gender, education, and age group as covariates, F(3, 1395) = 194.19, p < .001,
eta2 = .29. Covariate-adjusted means for the English, German, Polish, and Spanish
samples were 2.92, 2.94, 3.88, and 2.21, respectively.
6
We considered the skewness of a distribution as different from zero if the ratio of skew
over its standard error exceeded a value of +/-1.96 (hence, a significant z value).
7
These z-tests of differences between correlated correlation coefficients (see Meng et
al., 1992) took into account the intercorrelations of HS and BS, which were similar,
positive and significant across language versions (English: .54; German: .63; Polish:
.66; Spanish: .63).
8
Among the articles that reported using some version of the original AMMSA, 21 used
an English version, 22 a German version, and 13 a Spanish version. A bibliography of
papers using the AMMSA scale may be obtained from the first author.
9
The GEI's theoretical range is from 0 to 100, with 100 denoting complete gender
equality. The country scoring highest within in the EU is Sweden (83.8), the country
scoring lowest is Greece (52.2).
AMMSA-21 23
Table 1
Correlations of AMMSA-21 with Validation Constructs by Language Version
Hostile Sexism .85ab (359)*** .79a (279)*** .88b (404)*** .82a (325)***
Benevolent Sexism .57a (359)*** .64a (278)*** .68a (404)*** .62a (325)***
Social Dominance
.58a (359)*** .51a (273)*** .55a (386)*** .54a (316)***
Orientation
Victim Blaming .61ab (359)*** .54a (270)*** .69b (357)*** .58ab (305)***
Rape Proclivitya .37a (190)*** .21a (89)* .34a (71)** .17a (64)
Social Desirability .08a (359) .06a (303) -.14b (451)** .09a (346)
Note. Table entries are Pearson correlation coefficients. Valid numbers of observations
are reported in parentheses. Within a given row, coefficients not sharing a subscript
differ at p < .05, two-tailed (based on pairwise z-tests, Bonferroni corrected).
a
Male participants only.
* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.
AMMSA-21 24
La violencia sexual contra las mujeres sigue siendo un problema a nivel mundial
2020). Sus efectos negativos sobre la salud física y mental de las víctimas están bien
documentados (por ejemplo, Dilip & Bates, 2021). Recientemente, la cobertura de los
pública sobre el tema. No obstante, muchos incidentes de violencia sexual siguen sin ser
informados (por ejemplo, Saldarriaga et al., 2020), mientras que la actitud de culpar a
las víctimas y exonerar a los perpetradores está muy extendida (por ejemplo Bohner et
al., 2009; van der Bruggen & Grubb, 2014). Por consiguiente, siguen siendo
modernos sobre las agresiones sexuales (AMMSA). La escala original (Gerger et al.,
2007) amplió el concepto de mitos sobre la violación al incorporar creencias sobre una
gama más amplia de violencias sexuales, incluyendo la agresión sexual y el acoso. Sus
autores definieron los mitos sobre la agresión sexual como “creencias descriptivas o
prescriptivas sobre la agresión sexual... que sirven para negar, minimizar o justificar
conductas sexualmente agresivas de los hombres hacia las mujeres“. Inspirada por la
investigación sobre sexismo moderno y racismo (Swim et al., 1995), la escala AMMSA
incorpora ítems con un contenido más sutil que las anteriores escalas de mitos sobre la
violación (cf. Payne et al., 1999), reconociendo que en la actualidad las personas
AMMSA-21 25
importante, que el contenido de los mitos sobre la agresión sexual puede haber
cambiado con el paso del tiempo. Algunos de los temas que guiaron la generación de
ítems para la escala AMMSA original fueron, por tanto, análogos a los abordados en la
escala de sexismo moderno de Swim y sus colegas (1995): negación de la extensión del
problema, antagonismo hacia las demandas de las víctimas, y falta de apoyo a las
políticas diseñadas con el fin de aliviar los efectos de la violencia sexual. Otros dos
temas del AMMSA fueron más específicos de agresión sexual: creencias de que la
coerción masculina constituye algo natural de las relaciones sexuales, y creencias que
2007, p. 425). A pesar de la amplitud del contenido de los ítems, la escala AMMSA de
30 ítems resultó medir un constructo unidimensional en esencia (ver Gerger et al., 2007,
p. 430).
griego (Hantzi et al., 2015), japonés (Imakita et al., 2019), y francés (Courtois et al.,
2021), así como también una forma breve de 16 ítems en ruso (Khokhlova & Bohner,
(por ejemplo, Gul & Schuster, 2020; Milesi et al., 2020). En enero de 2022 Web of
Science recogía 162 artículos que citaban a Gerger et al. (2007); estos incluían 56
artículos sobre investigaciones en las que se había utilizado alguna versión de la escala
conductual de AMMSA (para ver una revisión, Bohner et al., en prensa), que muestran
que AMMSA actúa como un esquema mental al emitir juicios sobre la credibilidad de
las demandantes (Bohner & Schapansky, 2018), la culpabilidad del acusado, y la culpa
AMMSA-21 26
atribuida a la víctima en casos de violencia sexual (por ejemplo, Eyssel & Bohner,
2011; Milesi et al., 2020). Los estudios que han combinado la evaluación de AMMSA
con metodología experimental han mostrado que AMMSA está asociada con la
cognición social motivada, como puede ser la atención visual selectiva (por ejemplo,
proclividad hacia la violación (por ejemplo, Eyssel et al., 2009). Por tanto, las
investigaciones previas confirman la relevancia de esta escala que evalúa los mitos
contemporáneos sobre la agresión sexual. Sin embargo, como los mitos prevalentes
pueden cambiar con el paso del tiempo (Gerger et al., 2007), catorce años después de la
La investigación presente
Hemos perseguido tres objetivos principales: (1) actualizar el contenido de los ítems
para que reflejen el discurso contemporáneo tanto científico como público, (2) validar
simultáneamente las versiones en los cuatro idiomas, y (3) reducir la escala, y por tanto
más económica en su uso que la escala AMMSA original, preservando al mismo tiempo
sutil en los ítems. Específicamente, nuestro objetivo fue crear una escala con 21 ítems
(es decir, un 30% más corta que la AMMSA original), que se llamaría AMMSA-21, un
creó una escala preliminar en alemán de 50 ítems; luego se crearon cuatro versiones en
psicométricas a través de las versiones en los diferentes idiomas (ver más detalles en la
sección Método).
pronosticamos que AMMSA-21 tendría una alta correlación con el sexismo hostil (SH;
alta con el sexismo benévolo (SB; Glick & Fiske, 1996). Esto se debe a que el SB
AMMSA; no obstante, las personas con un alto (frente a bajo) SB también culpan más a
una víctima femenina si perciben que su conducta no es compatible con los roles
SDO y RWA representan ideologías que fomentan los prejuicios contra los miembros
del exogrupo, y contribuyen a justificar la desigualdad social (Jost et al., 2003). Los
mitos sobre la agresión sexual también cumplen una función que justifica el sistema e
pertenece a un grupo de bajo estatus (mujeres) a las que se les niega el apoyo (Bohner et
al., 2009). En consecuencia, hipotetizamos de que tanto la SDO como el RWA tendrían
previas con AMMSA (por ejemplo, Eyssel & Bohner, 2011; Eyssel et al., 2009),
AMMSA-21 28
Método
Para generar un conjunto inicial de ítems en alemán, en primer lugar incluimos varios
ítems de la AMMSA original con altas correlaciones de ítem-total ((rits; ver Gerger et
al., 2007; estudio 4). La redacción de algunos de estos ítems fue revisada y recortada
Illinois (IRMA) (McMahon & Farmer, 2011), para tener un contenido en los ítems
contenido de los medios online generales. El resultado de esta búsqueda incluyó una
tesis doctoral (Clay, 2019) en la que su autora comparó los mitos sobre la violación que
aparecían en los comentarios de los usuarios de Facebook con los contenidos de las
escalas AMMSA e IRMA. Clay concluyó que, a pesar de que había mucho
frecuencia en el discurso público actual. Esto incluye las creencias que sostienen que los
reportes de agresión sexual que hacen las mujeres son con frecuencia falsos
(especialmente si se han demorado en denunciar) y que las mujeres suelen acusar a los
arrojaron resultados similares. Por lo tanto, formulamos nuevos ítems que representaran
dichas creencias.
AMMSA-21 29
sexual (Gerger et al., 2007, ver más arriba), generando así un conjunto de 56 ítems, que
(por ejemplo, “Los violadores son a menudo hombres que no logran encontrar pareja”),
(b) estereotipos sobre la violación (por ejemplo, “En el caso de una violación de verdad,
falsas”), (d) creencias de que las mujeres mienten por motivos egoístas (por ejemplo, “A
menudo las mujeres acusan de violación a hombres famosos para fomentar sus propias
carreras”), (e) culpar a la mujer (por ejemplo, “Si una mujer permite que un hombre le
bese y le realice tocamientos, quiere ir a más”), (f) estereotipos sobre la conducta de las
mujeres (por ejemplo, “A muchas mujeres les gusta someterse a los deseos sexuales del
hombre”), (g) antagonismo hacia las demandas de las víctimas y falta de apoyo a las
políticas anti-violencia (por ejemplo, “Hoy en día ya hay suficientes ayudas para las
entre los 20 y los 50 años). Por motivos económicos tuvimos que conformarnos con una
pequeña muestra de personas de la misma población general que la muestra del idioma
participantes completaron primero los ítems por su cuenta, usando una escala del 1
cada uno de los ítems y sus respuestas con el entrevistador, que formuló preguntas
relacionadas con la comprensión del contenido y los conceptos. Se prestó atención a los
términos o frases que previamente habían sido marcados como potencialmente poco
escala AMMSA (Gerger et al., 2007), Dra. Heike Gerger y Dra. Hanna Kley. Las
expertas leyeron todos los ítems antes de analizarlos uno por uno. Como resultado de las
entrevistas con las expertas, se añadieron varios ítems nuevos y se revisó el texto de
algunos ítems. Después de las entrevistas cognitivas y de las entrevistas con las
(1986). Para cada idioma, una persona bilingüe tradujo los ítems del alemán al idioma
discutida y resuelta por consenso entre los autores y los traductores. De hecho, la
desacuerdos entre las versiones original y retrotraducida inicial, y los que hubo se
AMMSA-21 31
modificaciones en el texto final de los ítems en las cuatro versiones de los distintos
idiomas.
Participantes
Tabachnick y Fidell (2001, p. 588) sobre los análisis factoriales exploratorios, nuestro
objetivo fue disponer al menos de 300 participantes por cada versión idiomática. En
total 1459 participantes (463 hombres, 988 mujeres y 8 diversos) que habían
los análisis2. La mayoría de los participantes tenían entre 21 y 35 años (58%), como
bielefeld.de/record/2961538).
Procedimiento y materiales
Todos los procedimientos siguieron las directrices éticas de APA y fueron aprobados
orden que se describe más abajo. A menos que se reportara algo diferente, las escalas de
acuerdo); para cada constructo, se utilizó como puntuación del participante la media
al., 2002; polaco: Zinczuk & Draheim, 2009; ejemplo de ítem: “Nunca cojo nada que no
falso (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960; español: Ferrando & Chico, 2000; ejemplo de ítem:
“Siempre soy educado, incluso con personas desagradables”). Las consistencias internas
fueron modestas (ver la Tabla S2, Material Suplementario), pero en el mismo rango que
social.
AMMSA-21 33
Sexismo hostil y benévolo. Los participantes completaron una forma abreviada del
Inventario de Sexismo Ambivalente (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996; alemán: Eckes & Six-
Materna, 1999; polaco: Mikołajczak & Pietrzak, 2014; español: Expósito et al., 1998)
que contenía ítems que evaluaban el SH (por ejemplo, “La mayoría de las mujeres no
aprecian completamente todo lo que los hombres hacen por ellas”) y el SB (por
ejemplo, “Las mujeres deben ser queridas y protegidas por los hombres”). La selección
de ítems para esta forma abreviada se basó en información publicada sobre la escala en
cada idioma; seleccionamos los ítems de cada sub-escala ASI que tenían las mayores
abreviadas de la escala SDO (7) (Ho et al., 2015; alemán: Saldarriaga et al., 2017;
polaco: versión piloto de T. Besta, comunicación personal, enero 15, 2020; español:
Carvacho & Manzi, 2017; ejemplo de ítem: “Probablemente es bueno que determinados
grupos estén en la parte superior y otros grupos en la parte inferior”). Las consistencias
ítems de la escala RWA (Altemeyer, 1988; alemán: Funke, 2005; polaco: Radkiewicz,
2011; español: Carvacho & Manzi, 2017; ejemplo de ítem: “Lo que realmente necesita
nuestro país es un líder fuerte y decidido que destruya el mal, y nos devuelva al
cuestionario consistió en dos casos de violación por parte de conocidos, que contienen
AMMSA-21 34
2020), en los que por ejemplo se mencionaba que la víctima había pasado el fin de
semana con el perpetrador en su casa de vacaciones. Cada caso estuvo acompañado por
tres ítems que evaluaban si se culpaba a la víctima (por ejemplo, “¿Qué parte de
dos ítems que evaluaban la proclividad a la violación (por ejemplo, “¿Te hubieras
hombres (ver Gerger et al., 2007). Las consistencias internas para ambos índices se
a la violación las alfas de Cronbach fueron bajas (.41 y .58, respectivamente) en las
Resultados
Análisis factoriales
significativas seguimos tres pasos (ver Gerger et al., 2007): en primer lugar, extrajimos
iniciales. Esto sugirió consistentemente una solución de un solo factor, con valores
lentamente. Los primeros cinco valores propios fueron, inglés: 17.89, 2.53, 2.15, 1.75,
1.58; alemán: 16.48, 2.60, 2.16, 1.55, 1.44; polaco: 19.33, 2.39, 1.69, 1.50, 1.35;
(2000), realizamos un análisis paralelo (Horn, 1965) en cada versión de los diferentes
idiomas (como hicieron Gerger et al., 2007). Este procedimiento ayuda a determinar qué
de acuerdo con los resultados del análisis paralelo, utilizando extracción de máxima
factoriales significativas y similares4, pero las inter- correlaciones entre factores fueron
altas (inglés: .41 a .68; alemán: .63 a .67; polaco: .66 a .75; español: .50 a .70). En aras
nueva selección de ítems (ver Gerger et al., 2007). No obstante, para los lectores que
información sobre las cargas factoriales de cada ítem en cada idioma en las Tablas S3 a
Teniendo en cuenta los resultados del análisis factorial, tratamos los 50 ítems como
21 ítems del conjunto de 50 ítems de cada versión idiomática. El primer criterio fue
altas correlaciones entre ítems-totales; esto se realizó para establecer la alta consistencia
interna de la escala resultante. El segundo criterio fue que las medias de los ítems
problema común son las respuestas medias extremadamente bajas (más que altas) (ver
ítems que tenían las medias más altas. El tercer criterio fue que las diferencias de
planteamientos teóricos, ver Bohner, 1998), queríamos evitar ítems con diferencias muy
grandes, puesto que podrían reflejar un sesgo del propio género por encima de las
se introdujeron como variables en una base de datos empleando los 50 ítems como
unidades de observación.
asignamos rangos a cada ítem en cada una de las versiones de acuerdo con cada criterio;
países para las correlaciones entre ítems-totales (alfa de Cronbach = .90), las medias de
los ítems (alfa = .84), y las diferencias de género (alfa = .76). Por tanto, a continuación
computamos el rango medio de cada ítem en cada criterio para las cuatro versiones de
AMMSA-21 37
idiomas, y luego analizamos las intercorrelaciones de los tres criterios. Esto mostró que
los rangos de medias eran independientes de los rangos de las correlaciones entre ítems-
totales r(48) = -.10, p = .49, y las diferencias de género, r(48) = -.10, p = .51, mientras
correlacionaron negativamente, r(48) = -.47, p < .001. Por tanto, los ítems aceptables en
varianza de constructo válida, ver más arriba), creando un índice de calidad-ítem que
promediaba las tres clasificaciones, con una ponderación doble para cada uno de los
los rangos referidos a pequeñas diferencias de género. Este índice fue consistente en las
los ítems en las primeras 21 posiciones en términos de rangos promediados entre las
cuatro versiones de idiomas. Resultó que dos de esos ítems tuvieron buenos rangos
basados en su posición en una sola de las cuatro versiones; por tanto, los reemplazamos
por los ítems de las posiciones 22 y 23, cuyos rangos fueron más consistentes entre las
en la que algunos ítems abordaban más de una categoría. Dos de los ítems de AMMSA-
21 son idénticos a los ítems de la escala AMMSA original, y siete son versiones
modificadas de los ítems originales (ver en el apéndice los textos de los ítems en inglés,
cada ítem).
AMMSA-21 38
con alfas de Cronbach de .93 (inglés), .92 (alemán), .93 (polaco), y .94 (español). Las
correlaciones finales ítem-total fueron desde .44 a .79 (inglés), .45 a .76 (alemán), .48 a
.80 (polaco), y .37 a .79 (español), de modo que consideramos la media entre los 21
1.05) y alemana (M = 2.93, SD = 0.96) entre medias, p < .05 para todas las
comparaciones por pares excepto entre alemán e inglés, prueba post hoc de Duncan.5
Además, las puntuaciones de AMMSA-21 fueron superiores para los hombres que para
las mujeres en todos los idiomas (inglés: M = 3.39, SD = 0.99 frente a M = 2.64, SD =
= 0.86), todas t > 4.10, p < .001. Las distribuciones de las puntuaciones de AMMSA-21
patrones de correlación fueron altamente similares entre las diferentes versiones (ver la
Tabla 1). Según la hipótesis planteada, AMMSA-21 mostró correlaciones positivas con
AMMSA-21 39
el SH (r = .79 a .88) y el SB (r = .57 a .68), siendo las primeras mayores que las últimas
en cada versión de idioma, todas z > 4.9, todas las p < .001.7 También de acuerdo con
el RWA (r = .63 a .74) en todas las versiones. Por tanto, las personas que apoyan los
mitos sobre la agresión sexual también respaldan ideologías sexistas y otros prejuicios
que sirven para justificar la desigualdad social. Estos resultados reproducen los
hallazgos obtenidos con las versiones alemana, rusa, inglesa, española y griega de la
escala original AMMSA (Gerger et al., 2007; Hantzi et al., 2015; Khokhlova & Bohner,
los mitos sobre la agresión sexual se traduce así en juicios contra las víctimas en casos
significativa aunque pequeña, r = -.14. Por tanto, las respuestas a AMMSA-21 no son
reflejo de manera significativa del manejo de impresiones (ver Gerger et al., 2007;
Discusión
Nuestro intento de crear una escala AMMSA revisada fue exitoso. Basándonos en
entrevistas con expertos y legos, generamos un conjunto de 50 ítems que expresan las
creencias actuales sobre la agresión sexual contra las mujeres. Después de minuciosas
Gerger et al., 2007). El resultado es una escala económica, fiable y válida que muestra
modificaron siete ítems) pero también muestra mejoras en diversos aspectos: AMMSA-
21 (1) actualiza el contenido de los mitos sobre agresión sexual, (2) incluye cuatro
Contenido actualizado
la idea de que las mujeres mienten en relación con las agresiones sexuales por motivos
egoístas. Dichos temas han sido cubiertos ampliamente en cuestionarios anteriores que
miden la aceptación de los mitos sobre violación. Por ejemplo, 9 de los 19 ítems de la
de la víctima o los motivos para comunicar una violación falsa. Estos temas, a pesar de
ahora parecen reactivarse en los discursos de los medios sociales (Clay, 2019) y en los
medios impresos (Sacks et al., 2018). Aunque las acusaciones falsas son objetivamente
infrecuentes (por ejemplo, Kelly & Lovett, 2009), las creencias difundidas de que
dichas denuncias falsas son frecuentes pueden disuadir a las víctimas de violencia
sexual de comunicar los incidentes; por eso fue importante incluir dichas creencias en la
juntas, dichas creencias ofrecen una definición limitada de lo que constituye una
“violación real” (McKimmie et al., 2020) y, por tanto, una justificación para desestimar
las experiencias de las víctimas. Igual que su predecesora, AMMSA-21 incluye ítems
que reflejan antagonismo hacia las demandas de las víctimas y falta de apoyo a las
en las creencias que consideran la violencia sexual desde una perspectiva de políticas e
instituciones sociales, que habían sido añadidas por primera vez por Gerger et al. (2007)
permitieron identificar varios factores no aleatorios en cada una de las cuatro versiones
(ver nota al pie 4), estos estuvieron altamente intercorrelacionados, de modo que
todos modos, ofrecemos las cargas multifactoriales de todos los ítems del conjunto de
50 ítems como material suplementario, para que los investigadores interesados en crear
proyectos está en marcha con una adaptación turca; Korkmaz, 2022). Es importante
destacar que la selección de ítems para la escala AMMSA-21 final se realizó aplicando
simultáneamente los mismos criterios en las cuatro versiones idiomáticas. Por tanto,
pudimos presentar actualizaciones útiles en inglés, alemán y español, los tres idiomas
principales de la escala AMMSA8, y también por primera vez una escala AMMSA en
culturales. También esperamos que fomente más investigaciones con muestras que
AMMSA original (por ejemplo, Gul & Schuster, 2020; Helmke et al., 2014; Milesi et
al., 2020).
AMMSA-21 es un 30% más corta que su predecesora aunque mantiene altos estándares
ahorra tiempo a los participantes; en el contexto de una encuesta más larga, una
reducción de nueve ítems también puede marcar una diferencia crucial en la decisión de
determinada por la longitud del cuestionario, una escala más corta puede reducir los
encuestas telefónicas; Süssenbach & Bohner, 2011), incluso puede ser deseable contar
con versiones abreviadas. El laboratorio del primer autor está trabajando actualmente en
idiomas
AMMSA-21 43
de AMMSA-21 con las actitudes hostiles hacia las mujeres, medidas por la sub-escala
de SH del ASI (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Las correlaciones de AMMSA-21 con actitudes
sexistas menos abiertamente hostiles, medidas por la sub-escala de SB del ASI, también
fueron positivas, aunque inferiores que las de AMMSA-21 con el SH. Esto concuerda
violación que se apartaban de los roles de género tradicionales (Abrams et al., 2003).
SDO (Ho et al., 2015). Estos resultados complementan investigaciones previas que
mostraron que los mitos sobre la agresión sexual forman parte de un complejo de
escala. Estos resultados coincidieron en todas las versiones de los diferentes idiomas y
replicaron patrones similares conocidos para la escala AMMSA original (Gerger et al.,
juicios relacionados con casos específicos de violación. En respuesta a dos casos, los
culpar a las mujeres que habían sido víctimas de violencia sexual. Estos hallazgos
obtenidos con la escala AMMSA original (Eyssel & Bohner, 2011; Gerger et al., 2007).
patrón más claro en la versión española puede explicarse parcialmente por el pequeño
simétricas con medias cercanas a 3 en una escala de 1-7, que reproduce los hallazgos
con la escala AMMSA original (Gerger et al., 2007, pp. 431-432), la versión española
resultó en una distribución sesgada positivamente con medias más bajas, y la versión
polaca en una distribución sesgada negativamente con medias más altas. Teniendo en
interpretamos que este patrón refleja diferencias reales de actitud entre las muestras por
países (63% Reino Unido, 29% Estados Unidos, 8% otros), las muestras alemana,
nivel educativo fueron similares, las diferencias entre las muestras pueden indicar
en España que en Polonia (por ejemplo, Brandt, 2011; O'Reilly et al., 2014). Además, el
Género, 2020), refleja las diferencias en AMMSA-21: mientras que el GEI de Alemania
(67.5) está cerca del promedio de la Unión Europea (67.8), el de Polonia (55.8) es
ya que las medias de la escala AMMSA española original (Megías et al., 2011) han
estado en el mismo rango que las que ha comunicado Gerger et al. (2007) para las
España (Sirvent García Del Valle, 2020) halló niveles de acuerdo bastante bajos con
Limitaciones y perspectiva
Hemos presentado una escala que fue validada en cuatro idiomas, y por tanto es
estuvieron sub-representados en tres de las cuatro muestras. Por tanto, sería útil realizar
representativas (cf. Süssenbach & Bohner, 2011). Esto permitiría un análisis más
continuarán y ampliarán el trabajo sobre las funciones psicológicas de los mitos sobre la
agresión sexual (Bohner et al., 2009, en prensa). Aparte de dicha investigación básica, la
escala AMMSA-21 también debería demostrar ser útil en estudios cuyo objetivo sea
Notas
que fueron similares, positivas y significativas en todas las versiones (inglesa: .54;
alemana: .63; polaca: .66; española: .63).
8. De los artículos que comunicaron la utilización de alguna versión de la escala
AMMSA original, 21 utilizaron una versión inglesa, 22 una versión alemana, y 13
una versión española. El primer autor puede proporcionar una bibliografía de
artículos que utilizan la escala AMMSA.
9. El rango teórico del GEI es de 0 a 100, donde 100 indica igualdad de género
completa. El país con puntuaciones más altas en la UE es Suecia (83.8), y el que
tiene puntuaciones más bajas es Grecia (52.2).
AMMSA-21 48
Tabla 1
Correlaciones de AMMSA-21 con constructos de validación por cada versión de idioma
Sexismo hostil .85ab (359)*** .79a (279)*** .88b (404)*** .82a (325)***
Sexismo benévolo .57a (359)*** .64a (278)*** .68a (404)*** .62a (325)***
Orientación hacia la
dominancia social .58a (359)*** .51a (273)*** .55a (386)*** .54a (316)***
Culpar a la víctima .61ab (359)*** .54a (270)*** .69b (357)*** .58ab (305)***
Proclividad a la
.37a (190)*** .21a (89)* .34a (71)** .17a (64)
violacióna
Deseabilidad social .08a (359) .06a (303) -.14b (451)** .09a (346)
Nota. Las entradas de la tabla son los coeficientes de correlación de Pearson. Los
números válidos de observaciones se indican entre paréntesis. En una fila dada, los
coeficientes que no comparten subíndice difieren en p < .05, bilateral (basado en
pruebas z por pares, corrección de Bonferroni).
a
Solo participantes hombres.
* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.
AMMSA-21 49
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AMMSA-21 54
Note. Original item numbers from the 50-item pool and content areas used in item generation
are shown in parentheses (SP = stereotypes about the perpetrator; SR = stereotypes about rape,
PFA = prevalence of false accusations; WL = beliefs that women lie out of selfish motives; BW
= blaming the woman; SWB = stereotypes about women's behavior, AVD = antagonism toward
victims' demands and lack of support for anti-violence policies).
a
Modified version of an original AMMSA item.
b
Unmodified original AMMSA item.
1. In a custody battle, women often allege that their ex-husband has been sexually violent.a
(36; PFA, WL)
2. The discussion about sexual harassment on the job has resulted in many harmless behaviors
being misinterpreted as harassment.a (48; AVD)
3. Many women like to submit to the sexual wishes of men. (23; SR, SWB)
4. Women often accuse their husbands of marital rape to retaliate for a failed relationship.b
(47; PFA, WL)
5. Women often accuse men of rape in order to hurt them. (6; PFA, WL)
6. Women often accuse prominent men of rape in order to further their own career. (22; PFA,
WL)
7. These days, a large number of rape accusations are false. (28; PFA)
8. Most women prefer to be praised for their looks rather than their intelligence.b (44; SWB)
9. Because the fascination caused by sex is disproportionately large, society's sensitivity to
crimes in this area is also disproportionate.a (45; AVD)
10. Although the victims of armed robbery obviously fear for their lives, they receive far less
psychological support than rape victims.a (50; AVD)
11. Women who have emotional problems often claim that they have been raped. (12; SWB)
12. Women easily confuse well-intentioned gestures with sexual harassment.a (34; SWB)
13. These days, women who share revealing photos make themselves sex objects. (13; SWB)
14. There are sufficient offers of help for rape victims. (30; AVD)
15. In the event of an actual rape, a woman always resists. (37; SR)
16. These days, the victims of sexual violence receive sufficient help.a (16; AVD)
17. Most rape victims have taken the risk of walking through dark alleys at night. (29; BW,
SWB)
18. Good-looking women run a greater risk of becoming victims of sexual violence. (21; SR)
19. When women play hard to get, it doesn't mean they don't want sex.a (15; SWB, SR)
20. Men must always be on guard so as not to be accused of sexual harassment. (10; SP, PFA)
21. Some women really enjoy playing the victim of rape. (40; WL, SWB)