Open Peer Review on Qeios Direct and Indirect Associations between Conservative Ideological Dimensions and Child Sexual Abuse Myths Iraklis Grigoropoulos 1 1 Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki Funding: No specific funding was received for this work. Potential competing interests: No potential competing interests to declare. Abstract The current study examined conservatism's relationship with child sexual abuse myths and the mediating effect of different dimensions of conservative ideology (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation) on the relationship between religiosity, right-wing political orientation, and child sexual abuse myths. For this cross-sectional study, convenience sampling drew 233 participants via Greek social media platform advertisements and snowball sampling. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis were used to examine associations between child sexual abuse myths and predictor variables. Two parallel mediation models, where religiosity and political positioning predict child sexual abuse myths, mediated by social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism, were also examined using PROCESS macro (model 4). The current research highlights the need to acknowledge the role of conservative ideological dimensions and processes in child sexual abuse myths tolerance. It contributes theoretically and practically to our understanding of child sexual abuse myths, suggesting that social dominance orientation, as a facet of conservative ideology, may significantly predict child sexual abuse myths tolerance. Keywords: Child sexual abuse myths, conservative ideology, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, religiosity, Greece. Myths concerning child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetuate false beliefs about the frequency and severity of abuse, deny or minimize the responsibility of the offender, and distort the truth about the nature of abuse (Collings, 1997; Cunningham & Cromer, 2014; Cromer & Goldsmith, 2010). Various components of CSA myths (CSAM) have been reported, including the denial of abusiveness, the dispersion of guilt and the accountability of the offender, and stereotypes about the perpetrators and CSA incidents (Collings, 1997; Cromer & Goldsmith, 2010). In particular, Collings (1997) suggests a three-factor structure for the myths surrounding child sexual abuse: (1) The concept of blame diffusion pertains to the conviction that individuals other than the perpetrator—such as the child are partially or totally responsible for the abusive encounter (e.g., "Children who do not report ongoing sexual abuse must want the sexual contact to continue"); (2) the denial of abusiveness, includes ideas that emphasize the child's consent while downplaying the abusive nature of child sexual abuse (e.g., "Sexual contact between an adult and a child that the child wants and that the child finds physically Qeios, CC-BY 4.0 · Article, February 29, 2024 Qeios ID: 4FVMEK · https://doi.org/10.32388/4FVMEK 1/22