Everyday Sadism as a Predictor of Rape Myth Acceptance and Perception of Harassment

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X231165430
• Author: Ivonne Alicia Saravia Lalinde,Nicholas Longpré,Melissa de Roos
• Date: 01 October 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X231165430

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(13-14) 1323 –1342

© The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X231165430

journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo

Article

Everyday Sadism as a

Predictor of Rape Myth

Acceptance and Perception

of Harassment

Ivonne Alicia Saravia Lalinde1,

Nicholas Longpré2, and Melissa de Roos3

Abstract

The #MeToo movement has stressed the need to understand why individuals who

witness sexual violence may or may not take action. However, prevention programs

usually fail to address the association between personality traits and attitudes,

perception, and behavior in the context of sexual violence. To improve prevention

programs’ effectiveness, it is vital to understand how personality traits might

interfere with willingness to engage in bystander intervention. This study aims to

explore the relationships between Everyday Sadism, perception of harassment, Rape

Myths and gender in a sample of 177 participants recruited online. Analyses revealed

significant gender differences, with men endorsing more Rape Myths, perceiving

less harassment, and being more sadistic. Gender and everyday sadism emerged as

significant predictors of perception of harassment. In the case of Rape Myths, age

emerged as an additional predictor. These results have several implications, ranging

from expanding our knowledge of the influence of everyday sadism on factors known

to modulate bystander behaviors as well as informing and shaping the development

of prevention programs.

Keywords

sadism, dark tetrad, rape myths, harassment, sexual violence

1King’s College London, UK

2Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK

3Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Nicholas Longpré, School of Law, Criminology & Policing, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road,

Ormskirk, L39 4QP, UK.

Email: longpren@edgehill.ac.uk

1165430IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X231165430International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyLalinde et al.

research-article2023

1324 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(13-14)

Introduction

Sexual violence includes a wide variety of behaviors, ranging from sexual harass-

ment to sexual coercion, to rape, to sadistic rape, to sexual homicide (Knight et al.,

2013). Traditionally, the focus has been on studying the causes of severe forms of

sexual violence such as sadistic rape (e.g., Longpré et al., 2020b; Reale et al.,

2022) or sexual homicide (e.g., Chopin et al., 2023; Stefanska et al., 2020). The

rise of social media movements (e.g., #BeenRapedNeverReported) has shed a

light on the high prevalence of less severe forms of sexual violence (de Roos &

Jones, 2022a). Recent studies have supported the relationship between subclinical

personality traits, sexual violence and underlying offence-supportive cognitions

(Beckett & Longpré, 2022). However, few studies have been conducted on less

severe forms of sexual violence (e.g., Longpré et al., 2022; Sims-Knight & White,

2018) and our understanding of the nomological network and correlates of these

forms of violence is scarce. Therefore, the present manuscript aims to study the

relationship between everyday sadism, rape myths acceptance and perception of

harassment.

The Dark Triad and Sadism

Over recent decades, the Dark Triad has contributed to understanding the phenom-

enon of the human capacity for malevolence (Kowalski et al., 2020) . This constel-

lation of personality traits comprises subclinical narcissism, Machiavellianism, and

subclinical psychopathy, which share a common core of social deviance, self-pro-

motion, and emotional coldness (Paulhus, 2014). Narcissism is characterized by an

exploitative interpersonal style, a sense of entitlement and superiority, and grandios-

ity (Jones & Paulhus, 2014). Machiavellianism includes amorality, callousness,

manipulativeness, cynicism, and strategic calculating behavior to serve self-interest

(Jones & Paulhus, 2014). Finally, psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and

remorse, and manipulative, deceitful, and self-centered behaviors (Kreis et al.,

2012).

Empirical evidence has supported the addition of everyday sadism as a fourth trait,

forming the Dark Tetrad of personality (Paulhus, 2014; Plouffe et al., 2017). Everyday

sadism entails aggression that is pleasure-driven and involves the infliction of physical

and emotional pain on others to humiliate, punish or control them (Longpré et al.,

2020a). In contrast to the important empirical work on the facets of the Dark Triad,

research on everyday sadism is more limited, and the concept is often studied from the

perspective of criminal behavior and sexual sadism (Buckels et al., 2013; Longpré

et al., 2022). However, Longpré et al. (2020b) have shown that sadism extends beyond

a sexual disorder found in criminal populations, and in its subclinical form, it can pre-

dict maladaptive behaviors and delinquency such as traditional and online bullying

(Geel et al., 2017), white-collar crime (Amos et al., 2022), sexual violence (Beckett &

Longpré, 2022; Russell et al., 2017), atypical sexual violence (Snow & Longpré,

2022), stalking (Tachmetzidi Papoutsi & Longpré, 2022), and homicide (Monckton-

Smith et al., 2017).