Development and validation of the belief in Female Sexual Deceptiveness scale

This article describes the development of a scale measuring the extent of men's belief in female sexual deceptiveness. This belief has been postulated as a component of hostile masculinity and a precursor to more serious sexual-assault-facilitating cognitions, though it has not yet been studied empirically. From a final pool of 22 items, the 14-item Belief in Female Sexual Deceptiveness (BFSD) scale was constructed. Data were collected via online survey from 131 predominantly Hispanic college males; scale items were selected by exploratory factor analysis. Three moderately strongly correlated factors emerged, though they overlapped strongly and are currently considered only for future study. An 8-item short form of the BFSD scale (the BFSD-S) was created, as well. The full BFSD scale showed strong internal consistency and significant correlations with gender role attitudes, unequal/coercive relationship attitudes, history of misperceiving women's platonic interest as sexual, history of sexual frustration in relationships, adult attachment, belief in immanent justice, attitudes toward intimate partner violence, and rape myth acceptance. Patterns of divergent correlations with other measures also supported the scale's validity. The BFSD-S performed nearly identically to the BFSD. Limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.