Facilitating effects of erotica on aggression against women

Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Can Meta-Analysis Find a Link?

Whether pornography contributes to sexual aggression in real life has been the subject of dozens of studies over multiple decades. Nevertheless, scholars have not come to a consensus about whether effects are real. The current meta-analysis examined experimental, correlational, and population studies of the pornography/sexual aggression link dating back from the 1970s to the current time. Methodological weaknesses were very common in this field of research. Nonetheless, evidence did not suggest that nonviolent pornography was associated with sexual aggression. Evidence was particularly weak for longitudinal studies, suggesting an absence of long-term effects. Violent pornography was weakly correlated with sexual aggression, although the current evidence was unable to distinguish between a selection effect as compared to a socialization effect. Studies that employed more best practices tended to provide less evidence for relationships whereas studies with citation bias, an indication of researcher expectancy effects, tended to have higher effect sizes. Population studies suggested that increased availability of pornography is associated with reduced sexual aggression at the population level. More studies with improved practices and preregistration would be welcome.

Problematic Pornography Use and Physical and Sexual Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among Men in Batterer Intervention Programs

Recent decades witnessed a surge in pornography use, contributing to what some researchers referred to as problematic pornography use (PPU; excessive, compulsive, and uncontrollable pornography use). Informed by cognitive scripts theory, cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental research spanning several decades documented a positive association between men's pornography use and physical and sexual violence perpetration. However, there is a paucity of research investigating pornography use broadly, and PPU specifically, among men who perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV). The present cross-sectional study investigated the association between self-reported PPU and physical and sexual IPV perpetration among 273 men in batterer intervention programs. After accounting for psychiatric symptomology and substance use and problems, results revealed a positive association between PPU and both physical and sexual IPV perpetration. Findings highlighted the need for continued investigation of the function of pornography use for violent men, particularly as it relates to physical and sexual IPV perpetration.

The Influence Of Misogynous Rap Music On Sexual Aggression Against Women

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of cognitive distortions concerning women on sexually aggressive behavior in the laboratory. Twenty-seven men listened to misogynous rap music and 27 men listened to neutral rap music. Participants then viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and assaultive film vignettes and chose one of the vignettes to show to a female confederate. Among the participants in the misogynous music condition, 30% showed the assaultive vignette and 70% showed the neutral vignette. In the neutral condition, 7% showed the sexual-violent or assaultive vignette and 93% showed the neutral vignette. Participants who showed the sexual-violent or assaultive stimuli reported that the confederate was more upset and uncomfortable in viewing these stimuli than did participants who showed the neutral vignette. These findings suggest that misogynous music facilitates sexually aggressive behavior and support the relationship between cognitive distortions and sexual aggression.

Is pornography use associated with anti-woman sexual aggression? Re-examining the Confluence Model with third variable considerations

The Confluence Model of sexual aggression (Malamuth, Addison, & Koss, 2000) states that pornography use, thought to promote sexual coercion of women through presentation of submissive female imagery, works in conjunction with sexual promiscuity (SP) and hostile masculinity (HM), proposed sexual aggression risk factors, to produce anti-woman sexual aggression. An Internet based survey (N=183 adult males) replicated results of previous Confluence Model research, such that men who were high in HM and SP were more likely to report sexual coercion when they frequently, rather than infrequently, used pornography. Exploring new ground, this study also found that HM and SP together were strong predictors of consumption of violent sexual media, in comparison to non-violent sexual media, which suggests that men at high risk of sexual aggression consume different types of sexual material than men at low risk. Further, individual differences in sex drive were found to account for the effects previously attributed to pornography use in statistical tests of the Confluence Model. In the light of third variable considerations, these findings warrant a careful reappraisal of the Confluence Model's assertion that pornography use is a causal determinant of anti-woman sexual aggression.

Experimental effects of exposure to pornography: the moderating effect of personality and mediating effect of sexual arousal

Using a randomly selected community sample of 200 Danish young adult men and women in a randomized experimental design, the study investigated the effects of a personality trait (agreeableness), past pornography consumption, and experimental exposure to non-violent pornography on attitudes supporting violence against women (ASV). We found that lower levels of agreeableness and higher levels of past pornography consumption significantly predicted ASV. In addition, experimental exposure to pornography increased ASV but only among men low in agreeableness. This relationship was found to be significantly mediated by sexual arousal with sexual arousal referring to the subjective assessment of feeling sexually excited, ready for sexual activities, and/or bodily sensations associated with being sexually aroused. In underscoring the importance of individual differences, the results supported the hierarchical confluence model of sexual aggression and the media literature on affective engagement and priming effects.

Pornography and attitudes supporting violence against women: revisiting the relationship in nonexperimental studies

A meta-analysis was conducted to determine whether nonexperimental studies revealed an association between men's pornography consumption and their attitudes supporting violence against women. The meta-analysis corrected problems with a previously published meta-analysis and added more recent findings. In contrast to the earlier meta-analysis, the current results showed an overall significant positive association between pornography use and attitudes supporting violence against women in nonexperimental studies. In addition, such attitudes were found to correlate significantly higher with the use of sexually violent pornography than with the use of nonviolent pornography, although the latter relationship was also found to be significant. The study resolves what appeared to be a troubling discordance in the literature on pornography and aggressive attitudes by showing that the conclusions from nonexperimental studies in the area are in fact fully consistent with those of their counterpart experimental studies. This finding has important implications for the overall literature on pornography and aggression.

No More Black and Blue

In the mid-1970s, Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), the first national feminist organization to protest mediated sexual violence against women, pressured the music industry to cease using images of violence against women in its advertising. This article presents a case study of WAVAW's national boycott of Warner Communications, Inc. and documents the activists' successful consumer campaign. The study reveals that media violence was central to feminist organizing efforts, and that WAVAW and related organizations helped establish a climate of concern about violence that motivated scientific research on the relationship between exposure to media violence and subsequent aggression.

Prevalence, incidence, and predictors of dating violence: a longitudinal study of African American female adolescents

BACKGROUND

Few longitudinal studies have examined predictors of dating violence, a public health issue that may be more prevalent among African Americans. Our objective was to examine the prevalence, incidence, and predictors of dating violence in an African American sample using the theory of gender and power.

METHODS

A longitudinal design with a 1-year follow-up period was used. Recruiters screened adolescents from a variety of venues, including school health classes, county health department clinics, and adolescent health clinics. Study participants were 522 African American females 14-18 years of age. This study achieved an 85.7% participation rate. Dating violence was defined as ever having experienced verbal or physical abuse perpetrated by a boyfriend.

RESULTS

At baseline, 28% of adolescents reported a history of dating violence. To calculate the 1-year incidence of dating violence, adolescents reporting a history of dating violence at baseline were excluded from subsequent longitudinal analyses. In longitudinal analyses, the 1-year incidence of dating violence was 12%. Logistic regression analyses identified four factors at baseline that were predictive of dating violence. This four-factor model correctly classified 87.6% of adolescents according to whether or not they experienced dating violence during the 1-year follow-up. Controlling for public financial assistance, relative to adolescents not experiencing dating violence, those who did were 2.0 times more likely to report less understanding of healthy relationships (CI = 1.1-3.9, p = 0.02), 2.0 times more likely to report using drugs (CI = 1.0-3.7, p = 0.02), and 1.9 times more likely to have viewed X-rated movies (CI = 1.0-3.7, p = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that secondary prevention of dating violence necessitates educating clinicians on the importance of screening and training practitioners in clinical settings on how to effectively screen adolescents for dating violence, including risk factors for victimization.

Attitudinal effects of degrading themes and sexual explicitness in video materials

This study examined the independent and interactive effects of sexual explicitness and degrading themes toward women on mens' attitudes following exposure to video presentations of male-female interactions. Subjects were 83 male college students who viewed video vignettes under one of four stimulus conditions: (a) sexually explicit/degrading, (b) sexually explicit/nondegrading, (c) nonexplicit/degrading, and (d) nonexplicit/nondegrading. Results revealed that men exposed to degrading material, regardless of explicitness, were significantly more likely to express attitudes supportive of rape, while explicitness had no significant main or interactive effect on these attitudes. Further, the interaction of explicitness with degradation was found to impact scores on a measure of sexual callousness. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Alcohol-induced stimulation and sedation: relation to physical aggression

The relation between the stimulating and the sedating effects of acute alcohol consumption on human physical aggression was examined. Sixty male social drinkers were assigned to either an alcohol or a sober group. Aggression was measured using a modified version of S. Taylor's (1967) aggression paradigm, in which electric shocks are received from and administered to a fictitious opponent during a competitive task. Aggression was operationalized as the intensity and the duration of the shocks selected. Stimulation and sedation were measured using a self-report inventory. Results demonstrated that stimulation was positively related to aggression, but only in the intoxicated state. Sedation was not related to aggression in either the intoxicated or the sober state.

Violence and sexual violence in pornography: is it really increasing?

Literature and research on the question of the increasingly violent nature of pornography is reviewed. In addition, the paper reports the findings of a content analysis of all cartoons and pictures in Hustler Magazine from 1974 through 1987. Results indicate that sexually violent cartoons and/or pictorials constitute a relatively small proportion of the total cartoons and pictorials. Moreover, no monotonic increase was found in such depictions over the 14-year period examined. In fact, a relatively small and constant proportion of violent and/or sexually violent depictions over this period is reported. These findings are examined in relation to previous research and societal concern about alleged increases in violent pornography as an explanation for increases in rape rates.

Affective information processing and the assessment of anxiety

A conceptualization of anxiety as comprising three loosely coupled response systems of overt behavior, verbal report, and physiological activation has proven useful in clinical and theoretical work. With this framework as a starting point, an information-processing approach to the study of emotion is described. Emotions are conceived as affective programs within the brain, with information coded as propositions organized into associative networks. Affective expression results when such a network is accessed and processed, which can occur when a sufficient number of propositions are activated by environment stimuli and/or internal associations. It is hypothesized that information about the expressive physiology is an integral component of the associative structure, and that processing of the network accordingly results in measurable psychophysiological response. Data from studies of emotional imagery, as well as other areas of research, are reviewed in support in these theories. The utility of this approach for the assessment of anxiety disorders is discussed, and results of clinical studies are presented to suggest that individual differences in accessing and processing emotional information may bear significant implications for prognosis and treatment selection. It is speculated that differences among the anxiety disorders could be interpreted in terms of the degree of cognitive organization of the network, leading to potential refinement of current diagnostic categories. In conclusion, cognitive psychology paradigms are discussed in terms of their application to the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders.