Social Media Communication About Sexual Violence May Backfire: Online Experiment with Young Men

Sexual violence harms millions of individuals each year in the United States. Survivors of sexual violence endure long-term hardships such as significant financial setbacks, physical and mental health consequences, academic challenges, and stunted career achievement. Digital feminist activism (DFA) has created space online where women can disclose experiences of sexual violence. Research thus far has been limited to documenting the existence and value of DFA for those who participate and has not addressed whether DFA can influence a key demographic for prevention, young men. We conducted an experiment to examine the impact of DFA on college-aged men's reactance to messaging, rape myth acceptance, knowledge about severity, and susceptibility to perpetrate sexual violence. University men (n=230, 18-29 years old) were randomized to one of three conditions: (1) tweets from women challenging rape myths, (2) tweets from women providing information about sexual violence harms, or (3) no exposure control. Tweets challenging rape myths or providing information did not impact rape myth perceptions, knowledge, or susceptibility. Participants had greater reactance (unintended outcome) to tweets challenging rape myths, and subsequently higher rape myth acceptance and lower knowledge about the severity of sexual violence. Rape myth acceptance was associated with susceptibility to perpetrate sexual violence overall. Our finding that some forms of DFA have a negative, indirect influence among college-aged males highlights important unintended consequences and the need for more efficacious communication to prevent sexual violence perpetration.