Voluntary exposure to pornography and men's attitudes toward feminism and rape

Journal of Sex Research, Spring, 1997 by Kimberly A. Davies

Procedure

One of two establishments in the county that rented sexually explicit materials in 1988 granted access to the store's 1988 video rental records. These records contained names of 1,064 renters, their phone numbers, and the number of X-rated videos that they had rented from this establishment in 1988. From these records a list of all 1,064 persons and their phone numbers was constructed. Numbers of X-rated videos rented was not recorded on the phone list. Instead, each person was assigned an anonymous code so that the number of videos that each respondent had rented during 1988 could be recorded when creating the data file for completed surveys.

The phone list was given to a market research firm that was hired to complete 200 surveys with respondents residing in the county in which the court case was taking place. The research firm employed 10 interviewers (mean age 33.1 years), with an average of 5.1 years of experience to phone the respondents and complete the surveys over the telephone.

In training interviewers, great care was taken to avoid bias so that the data would be accepted in court. Interviewers were not told details about the court case or that the data were being collected at the request of defense attorneys. Further, the interviewers were instructed not to speculate about the reasons for the data being collected. They were simply to read the survey questions to the respondents and direct any questions about the purpose of the survey to the social scientist who oversaw data collection.

The research firm personnel told the interviewers that the sample was randomly generated; they were not told that the names were obtained from a video-rental establishment. Interviewers, however, were instructed to record a respondent's code on surveys as they interviewed that person.

Upon completion of training, interviewers dialed the numbers listed on individual calling records and read the following statement:

Hello, my name is (interviewer's name)

with (research firm). Let me assure you

that we are not selling anything but

rather interviewing a sample of adults

concerning a variety of current issues.

To make this survey scientific, I need to

speak with (sampled video-renter's

name from the phone list). Is (he or she)

home?

If the person they asked for was not at home, they noted that and attempted the call later. If the person was there but had not answered the phone, the interviewer repeated the opening statement when the requested person came to the phone.

After the intended respondent was on the phone, he or she was told that the survey would only take a few minutes and that the answers would remain confidential and anonymous. A question as to which state and county he or she lived in was used as a screening question. If a person did not live in the southern county where the court case was taking place, the interview was terminated at that time, and the respondent was excluded from the sample. One hundred forty-five (21% of 689) were excluded in this way.