Peer modeling and college men's sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2002 by Damon Mitchell, D.J. Angelone, Richard Hirschman, Roy S. Lilly, Gordon C. Nagayama Hall

Poststudy Questionnaire

On the poststudy questionnaire, 72 of the 73 participants indicated that of the three video clips, the sexually aggressive clip would have been most upsetting to their partner. Participants who showed the sexually aggressive video clip had anticipated that their partner would be more upset by their choice (M = 2.06, SD = .68) than had participants who showed a sexually nonaggressive video clip (M =3.25, SD = .61), t (68) = 6.59, p < .001. The effect size for this comparison was large by Cohen's (1988) guidelines (d = 1.48). Participants who showed the sexually aggressive video clip also perceived their partner to be more upset by their choice (M = 1.81, SD = .66) than did participants who showed a sexually nonaggressive video clip (M = 3.44, SD = .63), t (68) = 8.98, p < .001. The effect size for this comparison was also large by Cohen's (1988) guidelines (d = 1.69). These two questionnaire items had a Pearson correlation of .72, p < .01. Mean scores on the items did not differ as a function of participant history of sexual aggression.

DISCUSSION

As hypothesized, exposure to a male confederate who showed a sexually aggressive video clip to a female was associated with participants choosing to engage in this same behavior. This finding indicates that peer modeling can facilitate sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory. This finding also indicates that a man's sexually impositional behavior may be influenced by his observation of the sexually impositional behavior of a peer.

The apparent influence of the confederates' behavior on the participants' behavior may have been due to several factors. One possibility is that participants felt socially pressured to show the sexually aggressive video clip after they observed the confederates. This seems unlikely because the confederates did not comment on their choice to participants nor did they offer any verbal suggestion for participants to engage in the same behavior. A more likely possibility, consistent with social comparison theory, is that the confederates' choice normalized the showing of the sexually aggressive stimulus for participants who wanted to show the clip but were unsure if such behavior would be socially acceptable. The confederates' behavior provided direction and social approval. Another likely possibility, also consistent with social comparison theory, is that some participants wanted to show the sexually aggressive video clip but were only willing to do so in the company of a likeminded peer due to uncertainty about the acceptability of the behavior to the male confederate.

Differences in rates of sexually aggressive video-clip showing between participants exposed to a sexually impositional confederate versus a sexually nonimpositional confederate (32% vs. 11%) suggest that peer modeling may also be relevant to the inhibition of sexually impositional behavior. The confederates' choice of a neutral video clip may have discouraged some participants from choosing the sexually aggressive video clip. For example, some participants may have believed that the choice of the sexually aggressive video clip would have been offensive to the confederates or been met with their disapproval.