Gavey (1992) identified a reluctance for people to define forced sexual intercourse that occurs within the context of a date or between couples who are romantically linked, as rape. Date rape from a socio-cultural perspective is seen as an extreme act on a continuum of socially accepted aggressive sexual behaviour. One of the reasons for this is the many myths that exist about rape which act to blame survivors of rape for their own victimisation, consistent with Lerner's (1980) "just-world" view of negative life events. In order to investigate social perception of date rape, seventy male and female students from the University of Canterbury were asked to evaluate a hypothetical dating scenario that described either a forced or consenting sex experience. As an extension to the rape perception literature, two cognitive manipulations previously associated with activation of stereotypes were included in the study design. Participants were assigned to one of four experimental groups; low cognitive load, high cognitive load (memory load), high affective load (positive mood manipulation), and control (consenting sex scenario). Results indicated men and women in the present sample did not differ in their adherence to rape myths, and showed less rape supportive beliefs than the literature review predicted. Males gave higher ratings that the female encouraged the sexual incident the more they identified with the male actor, consistent with Lerner's just world theory. Females' identification with the female actor were not influenced by the type of scenario presented (date rape or consenting sex). Participants in the high cognitive load and high affective load conditions did not show greater rape myth acceptance and more rape supportive beliefs than participants in the low cognitive load in support of the hypotheses. The results are considered within a social-cognitive framework of sexual offending.