Men's reactions to hypothetical female sexual advances: A beauty bias in response to sexual coercion

The study investigated 277 college men's reactions to a vignette in which they were to imagine receiving an uninvited sexual advance from a casual female acquaintance. Subjects were predominantly middle-class Caucasian students. The vignette varied in the degree of coercion used (low — touch, moderate — push, high — threat, and very high — weapon). For each coercion level, the initiator was described as either very attractive or very unattractive. Subjects rated acceptability of the act, feelings of being pleased, violated, and negatively affected by the incident, and indicated if they would consent to further sexual activity. Results showed that men had significantly more negative reactions to advances that employed high and very high levels of force as compared to low and moderate levels. A beauty bias was found in that men had more positive (or less negative) reactions to the actions of an attractive vs. an unattractive initiator. Men had generally positive reactions to the sexual advance of an attractive woman who used low or moderate levels of coercion. Reactions to all other vignette situations were predominantly negative. As a model for future research, it is proposed that male and female reactions to sexual coercion can be predicted by levels of violation of sexual standards, force used, initiator sexual desirability, and romantic relationship with the initiator.