Sexually aggressive and nonaggressive men: sexual arousal and judgments in response to acquaintance rape and consensual analogues

Self-identified sexually aggressive (SA) and nonaggressive (NA) college men listened to audiotape analogues of consensual sexual intercourse and acquaintance rape. Phallometric and decision-latency methodology was used to examine sexual arousal and decisions to stop sexual advances in each scenario. Both groups showed increases in penile response to the consensual scenario. Consistent with the inhibition model of sexual aggression, the SA group showed greater sexual arousal and failed to inhibit responding when force was introduced in the rape, whereas the NA group exhibited less arousal and greater inhibition to force. The SA group allowed the rape to continue significantly longer than the NA group. These effects were greatly magnified in SA men who endorsed high calloused sexual beliefs, implying that a cognitive set that justifies sexual aggression and lacks victim empathy may disinhibit sexual arousal and potentiate coercive decision making.     

Male–Female Reactions to Variations in Sexual Explicitness in Pornography: An Empirical Test of Predictions of Intra- and Inter-gender Differences

Previous research has established that men and women respond differently to distinctive characteristics of mediated sexual portrayals. The current study experimentally tests a series of predictions derived from both sperm competition, and minimal parental investment perspectives about between- and within-gender responses to content manipulations of sexually explicit videos. Results indicate that men experienced greater post-exposure arousal and less negative affect after viewing sexually explicit videos than did women. Further, men who viewed more explicit sexual depictions tended to report greater post-exposure arousal than those who saw less explicit depictions. No within-gender differences were found for women in terms of content explicitness. Also, regardless of degree of explicitness, women reported lower levels of post-exposure arousal in response to content depicting male ejaculation than content that does not. Men, though expressing greater post-exposure arousal to less explicit content depicting male sexual climax than that which does not, showed no difference in arousal response when they saw more intensely explicit depictions, whether or not male ejaculation was shown. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future application of evolutionary theory in studies of mediated sexual content.     

Motivational factors in nonincarcerated sexually aggressive men

Research on convicted rapists has demonstrated the importance of several key motivational factors in male sexual aggression. In particular, anger at women and the need to dominate or control them have been repeatedly implicated. Although anger and power have also been shown to be important in understanding college men who report sexually aggressive behavior, there has been little research on what underlies these motives. This research combined questions assessing these underlying motivational factors, as well as questions dealing with underlying sexual motivation and disinhibition, with a slightly modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss & Oros, 1982). In Study 1, subjects were 184 male undergraduates. Factor analysis of the questions composing the four scales yielded four slightly modified scales. Scales measuring underlying anger, underlying power, and disinhibition significantly differentiated sexually aggressive from nonaggressive men but did not distinguish between men who were coercive, manipulative, or nonaggressive. In a replication on a smaller sample (n = 70), underlying anger, underlying power, and disinhibition again differentiated sexually aggressive from nonaggressive men.     

Facilitating sexual arousal via anger,aggression, or dominance

The hypothesis that either an angry emotional state or the expression of aggressive behavior facilitates sexual arousal has been the subject of considerable speculation but relatively little research. In a series of studies, Barclay found that anger increased sexual arousal as measured by the amount of sexual imagery produced in response to TAT-like stimuli that depicted males and females in dominant and submissive roles. In the present research, a series of experiments was conducted to determine whether such facilitation can be generalized beyond the specific procedures used by Barclay. Subjects (151 males and 136 females) in three experiments were angered by being negatively evaluated by a confederate identified as a fellow subject. Some subjects were subsequently given an opportunity to aggress; additionally, some subjects were exposed to male- and female-dominant pictorial stimuli. Results indicated that neither anger instigation nor the opportunity to engage in aggressive acts influenced self-reported sexual arousal. There was consistent evidence, however, that portrayals of dominance influenced perceptions of the stimulus person's sexuality. Though anger and aggression do not seem to facilitate sexual arousal, dominance cues (which can be confounded with anger manipulation) clearly elicit perceptions of sexuality.     

When Social Situations Take a Turn for the Worse: Situational and Interpersonal Risk Factors for Sexual Aggression

This study conducted an up-to-date assessment of situational and interpersonal risk factors for sexual aggression. Two hundred undergraduate women from a medium sized college on the US west coast completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and a questionnaire developed by the authors. Participants who reported sexual victimization on the SES answered a series of questions about their most severe experience, as well as a representative, nonaggressive date. Participants who reported no sexual victimization answered questions only about a representative date. Risk factors were identified by comparing victimized participants’ sexually aggressive dates to nonvictimized participants’ dates, and victimized participants’ non-sexually aggressive dates to nonvictimized participants’ dates. Results revealed distinct situational and interpersonal differences between sexually aggressive and nonaggressive social interactions.     

Repeated exposure to violent and nonviolent pornography: Likelihood of raping ratings and laboratory aggression against women

This study examined the relatively long-term effects of repeated exposure to violent and nonviolent pornography on male' laboratory aggression against women. Self-reported likelihood of raping was also assessed as an individual differences variable that might mediate susceptibility to the effects of pornography and to ascertain whether it predicted actual aggressive behavior. Subjects were randomly assigned to the sexually violent, sexually nonviolent, or control exposure conditions. Those assigned to the sexually violent or sexually nonviolent conditions were exposed over a four-week period to ten stimuli including feature-length films and written and pictorial depictions, whereas control subjects were not exposed to any stimuli. About a week following the end of the exposure phase, subjects participated in what they believed to be a totally unrelated experiment in which aggression was assessed within a Buss paradigm. Exposure to the violent or nonviolent pornographic stimuli was not found to affect laboratory aggression. These data are discussed in terms of a recent analysis of media effects emphasizing the temporary activation of ideas in audience' minds. Likelihood of raping ratings was found to predict laboratory aggression.     

Pornography and sexual aggression

This paper reviews work on the relation between pornography and sexual aggression, covering experimental research on arousal, attitudes, and laboratory aggression, and some correlational studies. The termpornography is intended to cover the materials used in the relevant research, although not all of these would necessarily be seen as “pornographic.” The main body of the review is divided between “aggressive” and “not specifically aggressive” pornography, with some consideration in the discussion of the nature of supposedly “nonaggressive” pornography. In the case of sexually aggressive pornography, a variety of undesirable effects have been observed. Males show equal sexual arousal to pornographic rape depictions and consenting intercourse depictions under certain “disinhibiting” circumstances, such as anger or depicted victim pleasure, and these disinhibitors can also produce increased laboratory aggression against female targets by males exposed to aggressive pornography. Aggressive and, to some extent, not specifically aggressive pornography have also been found to increase the endorsement of attitude statements that are supportive of sexual aggression. The paper concludes with a discussion of ethical considerations, possible psychological bases of the effects, and the question of censorship. It is concluded that although several types of materials may produce behavioral orientation toward, and/or attitudinal support for, sexual aggression, this is a function of aggression and dominance themes rather than the explicitness of the sexual cues. These themes extend beyond explicit pornography, through extremely violent stimuli that lack explicit sexual elements, to widely consumed “normal” films and reading matter.     

Human proactive aggression: association with personality disorders and psychopathy

Aggressive behaviors can be divided into two categories: reactive and proactive. Reactive aggressive behaviors occur in response to a stimulus or provocation. Proactive aggressive behaviors occur without provocation and are goal directed. A number of findings have suggested that individuals displaying proactive aggression may be discerned from individuals not displaying proactive aggression on measures of personality, psychopathology and psychopathy as well as in aggressive histories and type and severity of aggressive behaviors committed. In this study, subjects were recruited from a large urban community and classified as proactive (n = 20), reactive-only (n = 20) or nonaggressive (n = 10) based on laboratory behavioral testing. Subjects were administered a battery of questionnaires and structured interviews pertaining to personality disorders and psychopathy. It was hypothesized that proactive aggressive subjects would show greater numbers of personality disorders and have greater psychopathy relative to reactive-only and nonaggressive subjects. These hypotheses were supported. These results suggest that proactive aggression may be identified in a laboratory-based task, and differences between proactive and reactive-only aggressors can be detected.     

Punitiveness in response to films varying in content: A cross-national field study of aggression

Punitiveness in male movie-goers in London, Philadelphia, Rome and Toronto was measured before or after they attended films varying in content (aggressive, sexual, neutral) and arousal potential (low, high). A second dependent variable, altruism, was also assessed for some Ss. Hypotheses stemming from social learning theory and arousal theory were tested by comparing changes in punitiveness at aggressive, nonaggressive arousing (sexual) and nonaggressive nonarousing (neutral) films. At aggressive films there was an increase in punitiveness whereas a reduction in punitiveness was found at neutral films. Sexual films led to a smaller (nonsignificant) increase in punitiveness than aggressive films. The findings implied that arousal was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for increasing punitiveness. There were no significant cross-national differences in response to the films. Since the results did not generalize to other, nonaggressive responses, the film effects may be aggression-specific. Two additional findings in the U.S. sample were that urban Ss were more punitive than rural Ss and that the length of urban residency correlated negatively with altruism.     

Effects of prior destructive behavior, anonymity, and group presence on deindividuation and aggression.

Three of Zimbardo's deindividuation input variables (group presence, anonymity, and arousal) were manipulated in laboratory experiment, and their effects on aggression and deindividuation were measured. Only arousal produced a significant increase in aggression (p less than .05), while group presence produced a significant decrease in aggression (p less than .01). Anonymity had no significant effect on subjects' aggressiveness. Deindividuation per se was measured on a postsession questionnaire that assessed subjects' memory for their own aggressive behavior, self-consciousness, concern for social evaluation, and memory for central and peripheral cues. Only arousal condition participants showed deindividuation changes, but a factor analysis revealed that the deindividuation changes did not comprise a unified factor. Also it did not appear that the internal changes caused aggressive behavior, since the correlation between the two was low.     

Linking sexual and aggressive motives: contributions of "irrelevant" arousals

One hundred thirty-two male and female college undergraduates were randomly assigned to three different arousal conditions-sex, anxiety, laughter-and a nonaroused control, as a test of the hypothesis that aggressive and sexual imagery would appear only under conditions of sexual arousal. The subjects wrote four TAT stories, two to male-dominant pictures and two to female-dominant As predicted, the sexually aroused subjects wrote stories higher in sexual and aggressive imagery than did those in the other two arousal conditions, and the scores of those in the anxiety and laughter conditions were not significantly different from the controls'. The results are discussed in terms of a connection between sex and aggression. Hull's theory of drive level and Schachter and Singer's nonspecific arousal are rejected as explanations for the results. Support is also given to earlier findings in the area.     

Age as a modifier of sexually aggressive attitudes in men

Male attitudes and behaviours related to imagined sexual aggression were investigated in 99 Finnish men (mean age 24.3 years). Structural equation modelling suggested that imagined sexual aggression was directly predicted by hostile masculine ideologies and past antisocial acts, and indirectly by subject age (hostile masculinity decreased with age). For more detailed analyses of age effects on attitudes, the subjects were split into an older and a younger group. A small group of incarcerated rapists (n = 8; mean age 33.4 years) was included for comparative purposes; these were similar in age to the older group (n = 34; mean age 31.5 years) and were given the same attitude items. The younger men and the rapists expressed significantly more hostility toward women and acceptance of rape myths, and had a higher likelihood of committing rape than older men. Although younger men accepted interpersonal violence and sexual dominance, their attitudes were not necessarily reflected in past sexually aggressive behaviours, as they were in the rapists who differed from the younger men mainly in terms of their past antisocial activities.     

Sexual arousal,situational restrictiveness,and aggressive behavior

Eighty male college freshmen participated in an experiment designed to investigate the hypotheses that enhanced arousal will facilitate subsequent aggressive behavior and that an increase in aggressive behavior will be more likely to occur in a setting of situational permissiveness rather than situational restrictiveness. Subjects were either angered or not angered by a same-sex confederate, then told to imagine either a sexually arousing or a nonarousing situation during relaxation, and finally provided with an opportunity to aggress against this person by means of electric shocks. For half of the subjects, a setting of permissiveness was created, while for the other half the setting was one of situational restrictiveness. The results indicated that, even in a permissive setting, sexual arousal may inhibit aggressive behavior mediated by self-consciousness or anxiety. For nonaroused men, however, situational permissiveness tended to facilitate subsequent aggression. The investigation was considered a replication and an extension of the Baron (1974) study on the aggression-inhibiting influence of heightened sexual arousal.     

Antecedents of sexual and non-sexual aggression in young Singaporean men

This study investigated factors that have previously been implicated in male sexual aggression towards women, using a structural equation modelling approach to assess their relative influence on sexually coercive behaviours in young Singaporean men. Variables were classified under three major headings: childhood experience, personality, and attitudes facilitating violence. Non-sexual aggression against women was included in order to investigate its relationship to sexual aggression as well as its own causal antecedents. Results suggest that sexual and non-sexual aggression have different antecedents, and confirm the primacy of sexual variables (sexual experience, child sexual abuse) as antecedents to sexual aggression. Contrary to the hypothesis that sexual aggression is primarily aggressive in motivation, belligerence exerted only indirect effects on sexual aggression. Attitudinal variables (e.g. attitudes supportive of sexual aggression) contributed modestly to sexual but not to non-sexual aggression. Antisociality exerted indirect effects on both sexual aggression (via sexual experience and acceptance of interpersonal violence) and on non-sexual aggression (via belligerence). Parental violence contributed exclusively to non-sexual aggression. Finally, some cross-cultural differences in sexually coercive behaviour are highlighted.     

Aggressive Children and Effective Communication

Testing a component of a theoretical model which postulates that low levels of communication effectiveness accompany the social and affective problems presented by aggressive children, the study compared the communication skills of a group of aggressive (n = 49) and nonaggressive (n = 49) elementary school children (selected on the basis of teacher ratings) in a structured and cooperative communication task. Based on direct observational measures of communication effectiveness and aggression, and on teacher, peer, and self-rating measures of peer rejection and depressive symptoms, results showed that (a) aggressive children exhibited less effective communication skills and more disruptive communication skills than nonaggressive peers; (b) aggressive children experienced higher levels of peer rejection and depressive symptoms than nonaggressive peers; and (c) group differences in communication effectiveness could not be accounted for by differences in observed aggression and remained significant, even after controlling for differences in peer status and affective functioning. These findings highlight the role that ineffective communication may play in the development and maintenance of aggression and have important theoretical and applied implications, which are briefly discussed. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A Meta-Analysis Summarizing the Effects of Pornography II Aggression After Exposure

This meta-analytic review examines the effect that exposure to pornography produces on aggressive behavior under laboratory conditions considering a variety of possible moderating conditions (level of sexual arousal, level of prior anger, type of pornography, gender of subject, gender of the target of aggression, and medium used to convey the material). The summary demonstrates a homogeneous set of results showing that pictorial nudity reduces subsequent aggressive behavior, that consumption of material depicting nonviolent sexual activity increases aggressive behavior, and that media depictions of violent sexual activity generates more aggression than those of nonviolent sexual activity. No other moderator variable produced homogeneous findings. The implications of the results for theoretical approaches to understanding the impact of pornography receives discussion, as do the limitations of such findings.     

Sexual experience and recall of sexual vs. nonsexual information

The effects of both sex guilt and sexual experience on the ability to remember sexual and nonsexual information were examined Male and female subjects were asked to read and then recall facts from vignettes that concerned sexual and nonsexual dilemmas As expected, the sexually inexperienced subjects made more mistakes than did the experienced subjects when recalling sexual information There were no differences between the groups in recall of nonsexual information, and there were no differences associated with the sex guilt variable In addition, one subgroup of the sample was singled out as being particularly interesting from an applied perspective Previous research has identified high-guilt, high-experience women as being an at-risk group for unwanted pregnancy In fact, these women did have difficulty in remembering the sexual information Moreover, there was a clear bias in their recall pattern toward remembering information in favor of being sexually active Results are presented in terms of the relationship between sexual experience and sexual schemata, and between sex guilt and emotionality     

Mousekilling,intermale fighting,and conditioned emotional response in rats

Several possible relationships between two forms of aggression in rats were studied. First, mouse killing and spontaneous intermale fighting were found to be correlated. Rats which attacked other rats were those most likely to kill mice. To determine whether aggressive and nonaggressive rats were also differentially responsive to other situations involving emotional arousal, but not aggression, mouse-killers and nonkillers were compared in a conditioned emotional response (CER) situation. Mouse-killers showed greater suppression to the conditioned stimulus (CS) and to the situational cues of the apparatus. Therefore, a common arousal mechanism may underlie a number of diverse agonistic responses. Nevertheless, extensive mouse-killing experience did not increase the tendency of rats to fight with either adult males or juvenile males.     

The Social Instigation and Control of Physical Aggression

Forty male undergraduates were subjects in an experiment testing persuasibility under conditions of aggression and nonaggression. Social pressure (aggressive or pacifist) was used to persuade subjects to administer either an intense shock or a mild shock, via an electrode, to opponents. Subjects were also tested alone and in the mere presence of an audience. Aggressive social pressure significantly increased shock settings toward a nonaggressive opponent. Pacifistic social pressure significantly decreased aggression against an unmitigating aggressive opponent. The social pressure manipulation influenced the subjects' subsequent alone behavior in the former, but not the latter case. Mere audience presence mildly facilitated aggressive responding toward both types of opponents.