Sexually Aggressive Men's Responses to a Date Rape Analogue: Alcohol as a Disinhibiting Cue

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 1998 by Jeffrey A. Bernat, Karen S. Calhoun, Stephanie Stolp

Table 2. Decision Latency Means and Standard Deviations for Sexually Aggressive and Nonaggressive Men Across Alcohol

                      Sexually Aggressive

Alcohol
Condition:        Alcohol           No Alcohol
                 (n = 27)            (n = 27)

Decision
Latency:       [188.86.sub.a]     [156.84.sub.b]
(SD)              (46.28)             (37.92)

                        Nonaggressive

Alcohol
Condition:        Alcohol           No Alcohol
                 (n = 24)            (n = 24)

Decision
Latency:       [145.69.sub.b]     [147.40.sub.b]
(SD)              (37.22)             (34.26)

Note. Decision Latency is expressed in seconds. Means in the same row that do not share a common subscript differ significantly at p < .05 according to the Tukey Honestly Significant Difference test.

Rape Supportive Decisions

In order to determine the group status of men who fell into the most rape-supportive ranges of sexual decision-making, we conducted a frequency analysis determining the percentage of participants classified as sexually aggressive or nonaggressive for Segment 4 (Verbal Threats) and Segment 5 (Forced Sex). Sexually aggressive men were nearly six times more likely (24.5% vs. 4.2%) to stop the date rape during Segment 4 (i.e., the man attempts to remove the woman's jeans, verbally threatens to hurt her, and she has begun yelling and crying for him to stop) than nonaggressive men, [chi square] (1, N = 100) = 7.23, p [is less than] .01. Only one participant stopped the tape after forced sexual activity transpired (i.e., during Segment 5), and he was classified as sexually aggressive. As expected, differences were magnified in the alcohol condition, with sexually aggressive men over eight times more likely (34.6% vs. 4.2%) to stop the tape during Segment 4 than nonaggressive men, [chi square] (1, N = 100) = 8.26, p [is less than] .01.

Suspicious Schema Explanation

To examine whether sexually aggressive men processed sexual information according to a suspicious schema, we computed Pearson product moment correlations between sexual aggression frequency and ratings of the woman's communication (i.e., honesty, desire to have sex, and typicality). As shown in Table 3, a significant negative correlation was found between sexual aggression (frequency) and judgment of the female character's honesty in expressing her feelings about wanting to have sex. As predicted, relatively more aggressive men also rated the female character as wanting to have sex to a greater degree than did less aggressive men. Surprisingly, a significant negative correlation between sexual aggression and typicality ratings suggested relatively more aggressive men rated the female character's behavior as less typical than how most women would act given the same sexual situation. As predicted, the pattern of these results was stronger in the alcohol condition, which appeared to be responsible for the overall effect.

Table 3. Correlations Between Sexual Aggression and Perceptions of the Woman's Communication in the Alcohol and No Alcohol Conditions.