Estimates suggest that around 20% of women may have experienced rape. Various misconceptions about rape (i.e., rape myths) are closely related to victim blaming. In our studies we tested the link between system justification, beliefs in biological origins of gender differences, ambivalent sexism and beliefs concerning sexual violence. Study 1 was conducted among 433 Polish students. The sequential mediation analysis suggests that system justification predicts the level of rape myth acceptance through beliefs in biological origins of gender differences and then hostile (but not benevolent) sexism. In Study 2, conducted among 197 Polish students, we tested the relationship between beliefs in biological origins of gender differences and beliefs concerning sexual violence using experimental design. Contrary to our expectations, students who read the text about social origins of gender differences perceived the survivor of a hypothetical acquaintance rape as less credible, and proposed a lower sentence for a stranger rape perpetrator, compared to participants who read about biological origins of gender differences. We suspect that this is due to experiencing reactance when confronted with social explanations of gender differences. We discuss implications for research and policy.

据估计，大约 20% 的女性可能遭受过强奸。对强奸的各种误解（即强奸神话）与指责受害者密切相关。在我们的研究中，我们测试了系统论证、性别差异的生物学起源信念、矛盾的性别歧视和关于性暴力的信念之间的联系。研究 1 在 433 名波兰学生中进行。顺序中介分析表明，系统论证通过对性别差异的生物学起源的信念以及敌对（但不是仁慈的）性别歧视来预测强奸神话的接受程度。在对 197 名波兰学生进行的研究 2 中，我们使用实验设计测试了关于性别差异的生物学起源的信念与关于性暴力的信念之间的关系。与我们的预期相反，与阅读性别差异的生物学起源的参与者相比，阅读关于性别差异的社会起源的文本的学生认为假设熟人强奸的幸存者不太可信，并建议对陌生人强奸犯的刑罚较低。我们怀疑这是由于在面对性别差异的社会解释时经历了反应。我们讨论对研究和政策的影响。