Replication data for: The Impact of Sexualized Video Game Content and Cognitive Load on Rape Myth Acceptance and Dehumanization

This study examined the consequences of sexualized video game content and cognitive load on rape myth acceptance, and whether dehumanization of the victim and of the perpetrator mediated these effects. Participants (N=142) played a video game using sexualized or non-sexualized female characters. Cognitive load was manipulated by setting the difficulty level of the game to low or high. After gameplay, participants read a rape date story, and were then asked to judge the victim’s and the perpetrator’s degree of responsibility and dehumanization. It was hypothesized that playing the video game with a sexualized content would increase the responsibility assigned to the victim and diminish the responsibility assigned to the perpetrator. Further, dehumanization of the victim and the perpetrator was expected to mediate this relation. The dataset consists of three files, containing the "read me" document providing all the information needed to understand the data files and two data files. These last two files are identical except for their file formats. They contain the data of the study.