ArticlePDF Available

Abstract

A scale designed to measure attraction to sexual aggression is described, based on earlier work assessing self‐reported likelihood of committing rape. This scale's associations with measures of theoretically relevant attitudes, perceptions, and behavioral inclinations are examined in comparison with briefer measures, and with a number of other scales measuring attraction to various types of sexual interactions. These include conventional sex (e.g., heterosexual intercourse), homosexuality, bondage, unconventional sex (e.g., group sex), and deviant sex (e.g., pedophilia). Data supporting the longer and shorter versions of the attraction to sexual aggression scale are presented, showing internal consistency, test‐retest reliability, and discriminant and construct validity. As well, a number of issues raised by critiques of research in this area are addressed empirically.
... Moreover, self-reported arousal at thinking about forcible sex correlated reliably with both self-reported sexual aggression and with the dominance motivation scales, supporting the link between dominance and sexuality. That these responses were valid and not an artifact of the self-report format was indicated by a strong correlation between the self-report measure of arousal (a precursor of the Attractiveness of Sexual Aggression [ASA] scale; Malamuth, 1989aMalamuth, , 1989b and the amount of penile tumescence that occurred while the participant read an account of a rape. ...
... Participants completed both the LSH scale (Pryor, 1987) and the ASA scale (Malamuth, 1989a(Malamuth, , 1989b following the completion of the pronunciation task. The LSH scale consists of 10 scenarios in which the participant is to imagine he has a kind of leverage or control over an attractive woman and then estimates the likelihood (from 1, not at all likely, to 5, very likely) that he would take advantage of this opportunity to obtain sexual favors from the woman. ...
... Clearly there are important differences between what is measured by the LSH and the ASA. The LSH scale is concerned with whether one would coerce a woman to have sex with him without using physical force (Pryor, 1987), whereas the ASA deals directly with the attractiveness of using physical force to gain sex (Malamuth, 1989a). Therefore, the different results using the two measures may be attributable to differences between men who would use physical force (i.e., rape) versus those who would not (see Gu-tek&Morasch, 1982;Lisak& Roth, 1988). ...
Article
Full-text available
One characteristic of men who sexually harass is that they are not aware that their actions are inappropriate or a misuse of their power (L. F. Fitzgerald, 1993a). We investigated the existence and automaticity of a mental association between the concepts of power and sex, and its consequences for sexual harassment tendencies. Using a subliminal priming paradigm, Experiment 1 demonstrated an automatic link between power and sex, and only for men high in the likelihood to sexually harass or aggress. In Experiment 2, male participants were unobtrusively primed with either power-related or neutral stimuli. For men likely to sexually aggress, but not other participants, attraction ratings of a female confederate were significantly higher in the power priming than the neutral priming condition.
... Two items assessed sexual aggression proclivity, which were examined separately in analyses (adapted from Malamuth, 1989). Both items have shown discriminant and construct validity in the literature (Malamuth, 1989). ...
... Two items assessed sexual aggression proclivity, which were examined separately in analyses (adapted from Malamuth, 1989). Both items have shown discriminant and construct validity in the literature (Malamuth, 1989). Both items were scored on a 0-100 scale that indicated the likelihood of engaging in each of the items. ...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Peer influences may play a maintaining or contributing role in alcohol-related sexually aggressive behavior (SAB) in undergraduates. Undergraduate men substantially overperceive their peers’ SAB-related attitudes and behaviors (i.e., show substantial misperception of SAB-related social norms). Moreover, men at high risk of perpetrating SAB often show greater overestimation than lower risk peers. The current work provides a comprehensive description of SAB-related social norms within a large sample of undergraduates, examining five novel normative misperceptions associated with alcohol-related SAB, and evaluating relations between social norms and self-reported histories of both contact and noncontact SAB. Method: Undergraduate men (n = 567) endorsing attraction to women from two large state universities in different regions of the United States responded to questions about sexual attitudes, behaviors, and proclivities. They completed these measures twice: once from their own perspective and then from the perspective of the typical college male (TCM). Results: Students showed large overestimation of peers’ general and alcohol-specific attitudes and behaviors. Many self and normative perceptions were also significantly related to a self-reported history of noncontact or contact SAB. Conclusions: Relative to self-ratings, TCM ratings were overestimated for all assessed constructs and thus represent targets of future prevention efforts. Men who reported an SAB history often showed more marked misperceptions, speaking to the potential utility of providing corrective normative feedback to these undergraduates in future work. Future prevention efforts may benefit from providing personalized normative feedback to undergraduates, and particularly high-risk students, about the accuracy of their peer perceptions.
... Par exemple, Rudman et Mescher (2012) ont montré que les hommes qui associaient implicitement les femmes sexualisées à des animaux avaient une plus grande propension à l'agression sexuelle que les hommes qui ne le faisaient pas. En effet, par l'entremise de tests d'association implicite, les auteurs ont trouvé que les hommes qui associaient automatiquement les femmes à des animaux ou des attributs non humains étaient plus enclins à violer ou harceler sexuellement les femmes selon leurs réponses à l'Attraction to Sexual Aggression Inventory (Malamuth, 1989 (Galdi et al., 2014). ...
... Thomas & Gorzalka, 2013) and with physiologically assessed sexual arousal to sexually coercive stimuli in community males (r = .25; Malamuth, 1989). This attests to Malamuth's (1981) coercive proclivitiy items' behavioral relevance above and beyond the mere willingness to indicate hypothetical coercive inclinations in anonymous research studies. ...
Article
Full-text available
In their influential paper Wurtele et al. (2014) investigated the degree to which individuals within the general population (N = 435) express sexual interest in children. In the male population of their study (n = 173), about 6% showed a propensity to engage in sexual activity with a child. Based on a German general population sample consisting of women and men (N = 911, n = 206 males), we were able to replicate most of the results of Wurtele and colleagues (e.g., 6% of men indicated some likelihood of having sex with a child). To explain sexual offending, Seto (2019) developed the motivation-facilitation model (MFM). In our study, we were interested whether this model also translates to explaining the propensity for deviant sexual behavior in the general population. Moderated hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed that hypersexuality and sexual fantasies had significant effects as motivating factors for deviant sexual behavior (e.g., sexually assaulting an adult), whereas we found no significant effect of psychopathy as a facilitator. For the prediction of child sexual abuse, only hypersexuality had a significant effect. Notably, after including gender in both models the effect of hypersexuality was no longer significant. Accordingly, we were able to show that the MFM is useful in explaining the propensity for deviant sexual behavior foremost in the male general population. Thus, in clinical practice an assessment of hypersexuality seems to be most relevant for the male population.
... Even though the extent of sexual violence varies considerably between wars, sexual violence occurs in all wars (Wood, 2006). In surveys of undergraduate men, about one-third report some likelihood that they personally would rape a woman if they could be assured that they would not suffer negative consequences (e.g., Malamuth, 1989). ...
... As well, Auger and Amiot (2019) adapted an Amiot's and Bastian's (2017) collective action intentions scale to fit the behavioral intentions towards animals. When it comes to sexism, behavioral items from the Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale (Malamuth 1989) may be used, while for racism researchers can use one of the methods that is used to measure Aversive Racism (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986), such as selecting Black or White candidates for the job. ...
Article
In contemporary times, children tend to establish stronger emotional connections with nonhuman animals through their depictions in various forms of media rather than through direct experiences in real-life interactions. These portrayals of nonhumans play a decisive role in the cultural canonization of speciesist ideologies and anthropocentric perspectives. This paper aims to contribute to critical animal studies literature on portraying nonhumans in children-oriented content. To this end, this paper conducts a literature review of the pre-existing research on nonhuman animal representations in media for children from a critical animal studies perspective and an anti-speciesist stance. In order to avoid a human-centric perspective of nonhuman representations, the search criteria exclude the analyses that focus on the interpretation of animals as symbols and embodiment of human matters. Overall, nonhuman animals are represented in connection to human issues, within an instrumental continuum and happily “consenting” to being used, and their representations often undergo a process of excessive cutification. Moreover, the persistent gendering of nonhumans includes the projection of human heteronormativity onto nonhumans. Predominantly, the acknowledgment of their individuality depends on the degree of stereotyping and whether the anthropomorphized traits include voice and naming. The representations identified in the literature have been classified and put together to aid future research on the matter by offering a recollection of main representations with an anti-speciesist approach and a diagram that might serve as a tool for analysis. keywords: Media for children; speciesism; representation of animals; animals in media; anthropomorphizing; disneyfication. Link to the volume: https://journalforcriticalanimalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/JCAS-Vol-20-Iss-1-Dec-2023.pdf
... When examining predictors of sexual and nonsexual aggression, Hunter et al. (2010) found hostile masculinity to be strongly associated with psychopathic and antagonistic traits. In that study, hostile masculinity was measured by the Hostility Toward Women Scale (Check, 1988), the Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale (Burt, 1980), the sexual function index of the Moral Disengagement Scale (Bandura et al., 1996), and the revised Attraction Scale (Malamuth, 1989). Furthermore, LeBreton et al. (2013) found a large array of negative attitudes toward women to be reliably predicted by antisocial and psychopathic personality traits. ...
Article
Full-text available
Hostility toward women is frequently examined as a risk factor for violence against women, but research on its antecedents is sparse. The aim of this study was to explore the developmental and psychological antecedents associated with hostility toward women in a Canadian sample of sexual aggressors of women. Drawing on Malamuth’s confluence model of sexual aggression, we developed a multifactorial model of hostility toward women, using structural equation modeling. The results indicate the presence of three trajectories, all starting from childhood victimization and leading to hostility toward women, involving antisocial characteristics, emotional negativity, anxiety, and depression.
... Rape-supportive attitudes typically comprise rape myth acceptance, adversarial beliefs about women, or the acceptance of interpersonal violence, all of which have been positively correlated with sexual aggression (Burt, 1980;Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995;Malamuth, 1989aMalamuth, , 1989b. Furthermore, rape-supportive attitudes include positive evaluations of rape itself, which are associated with a higher self-reported likelihood to rape in case of impunity, that is, rape proclivity Nunes et al., 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
Current research indicates that aggressive sexual fantasies (ASF) are related to sexual aggression, above and beyond other risk factors for this behavior. There have, however, rarely been explicitly considered in multifactor models aiming to explain sexual aggression. One exception is the multifactorial Revised Confluence Model of Sexual Aggression that was replicated in two samples of male individuals who were convicted of sexual offenses and a small sample of men from the general population and evidenced a high relevance of ASF, respectively. There were, however, no further attempts to replicate the model in larger samples from the general population. We, therefore, used a subsample from the Finnish Genetics of Sexuality and Aggression project including 3269 men (age: M = 26.17 years, SD = 4.76) to do so. Cross-sectional latent structural equation models corroborated previous research and the assumption that ASF are a central component in multifactor models that aim to explain sexual aggression: ASF and antisocial behavior/aggression were equally important associates of sexual coercion when also considering adverse childhood experiences, hypersexuality, and callous-unemotional traits. Additionally, ASF mediated the links between hypersexuality, callous-unemotional traits, as well as childhood sexual abuse and sexual coercion. These links held stable when entering further risk factors, that is, distorted perceptions, rape-supportive attitudes, and violent pornography consumption into the model. Contrasting assumptions, alcohol consumption and antisocial behavior/aggression did not interact. These results illustrate the potential importance of ASF for sexual aggression. They indicate that ASF require consideration by research on sexual aggression as well as in the treatment and risk assessment of sexual perpetrators.
Article
Full-text available
Four studies suggest that priming may yield directionally different effects on social perception and behavior if perceptual and behavioral experiences with the stimulus diverge. This seems true for sex and aggression: Men are more likely to behave aggressively than women, whereas women are more likely to perceive aggressive behavior than men. Using a sequential priming paradigm, Study 1 demonstrates that a basic semantic link between sex and aggression exists for both genders. This link, however, has opposing behavioral and perceptual consequences for men and women. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that sex priming facilitates aggressive behavior only for men. Study 4 shows that only women perceive the ambiguously aggressive behavior of a male target person as more aggressive after sex priming. Thus, the perceptual and behavioral responses to sex priming are consistent with the experiences men and women typically have with sex and aggression.
Article
Full-text available
Developed a survey capable of reflecting hidden cases of rape and of documenting a dimensional view of sexual aggression/sexual victimization. This survey examines degrees of coercion used or experienced in sexual activity. Results obtained from 3,862 university students support a dimensional view. The viability of a survey approach to sample selection for future rape research is discussed. (4 ref)
Article
Full-text available
Special issue: Methodological developments in personality research. Examines the usefulness of factor analysis (FA) in developing and evaluating personality scales that measure limited domain constructs. The approach advocated follows from the assumptions that a scale ought to measure a single construct, that FA ought to be applied routinely to new personality scales, and that the factors of a scale are important if they are differentially related to other measures. A detailed study of the Self-Monitoring Scale illustrates how FA can help determine what a scale measures. A 2nd example uses the self-esteem literature to illustrate how FA can clarify the proliferation of scales within a single content domain. Confirmatory techniques are also introduced as a means for testing specific hypotheses.
Article
Full-text available
Tested 2 hypotheses implicit in the sex-role socialization analysis of rape: that reactions to rape may be affected (a) by the situational context in which a rape is portrayed and (b) by individual differences in sex role stereotyping. 289 male and female college students were classified as either high or low in sex-role stereotyping. They were then randomly assigned to read 1 of 3 sexual depictions (mutually consenting intercourse, stranger rape, and acquaintance rape) and were asked to indicate their sexual arousal and perceptions of the depictions. Male Ss were also asked to indicate the likelihood of their committing rape if they could be assured that no one would know. Results indicate sexual arousal and perceptual differences in reactions to the acquaintance rape vs stranger rape, and as expected, these reactions were mediated by Ss' sex-role stereotyping. High sex-role stereotyping Ss showed sexual arousal patterns like those typically found with identified rapist populations. Of the male Ss, 44% showed some likelihood of raping. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Chapter
While studying the recent situation of aggression theory and its development, we can observe a shift of approaches. At first, individual factors (like drive, instinct, or trait) were considered, then general processes (e.g., the frustration-aggression relationship or imitation), and, finally, situational factors and thereby more and more their subjective evaluation were stressed.
Article
"Construct validation was introduced in order to specify types of research required in developing tests for which the conventional views on validation are inappropriate. Personality tests, and some tests of ability, are interpreted in terms of attributes for which there is no adequate criterion. This paper indicates what sorts of evidence can substantiate such an interpretation, and how such evidence is to be interpreted." 60 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Article
This paper reviews some crucial experimental studies of the behavioral consequences of exposure to violent or aggressive pornography and evaluates their validity and relevance as support for censoring pornography in the aftermath of the Meese Commission. We find this research deficient on a number of grounds. Many designs confound the effects of the stimuli with the anger of the subjects. The theoretical models consistently do not explain the results, and, to the extent that they do, such models do not offer support for censorship policies. The evidence of aggression is ambiguous and subject to contradictory interpretations. Means in factorial designs are reported incompletely, scales constructed incredibly (particularly the Likelihood to Rape Scale), and the experimental procedures relate only questionably to everyday realities. Consequently, while censorship policies might have a sound basis on moral and ideological grounds, this particular strain of research does not constitute a scientific basis for such policies.
Article
The use of general linear regression methods for the analysis of categorical data is recommended. The general linear model analysis of a 0,1 coded re sponse variable produces estimates of the same re sponse probabilities that might otherwise be esti mated from frequencies in a multiway contingency table. When factors in the design are correlated, the regression analysis estimates the same response probabilities that would be estimated from the simple marginal frequencies in a balanced ortho gonal design. The independent effects that are es timated by the regression analysis are the un- weighted means of the response probabilities in various cells of a cross-classification design; how ever, it is not necessary that all cells in a complex design be filled in order for the estimates to have that interpretation. The advantages of the general linear model analysis include familiarity of most psychologists with the methods, availability of computer programs, and ease of application to problems that are too complex for development of complete multiway contingency tables.
Article
In this study we explored the role of coercive sexual fantasies among men as predictors of hypothetical willingness to rape and self‐reports of past sexual aggression. Men (N = 114) enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses were given questionnaires assessing sexual fantasies, acceptance of rape myths, and aggressive tendencies as well as measures of likelihood to commit rape and past history of coercive sexual behavior. Likelihood to rape was found to be correlated with reports of coercive sexual fantasies (r = .51, p < .001), rape myth acceptance (r = .21, p < .05), and aggressive tendencies (r = .21, p < .05), yielding a multiple R of .44 (p < .001). Past coercive sexual behavior was correlated with coercive sexual fantasies (r = .26, p < .05), aggressive tendencies (r = .22, p < .05), and with their interaction (r = .39, p < .01), yielding a multiple R of .41 (p < .05). The two target variables, likelihood to rape and coercive sexual behavior, were not significantly associated with one another. These findings are discussed in terms of the role of sexual fantasy content as an hypothesized consequent of the content of external imagery to which the individual is exposed and as an hypothesized determinant of subsequent behavior.
Article
The predictive validity of a psychological measure can be improved by minimizing measurement errors through increases in the length of the assessment (aggregation) and, for an assessment of finite length, by making use of objective strategies for choosing from all available component measures. Two prominent considerations in selecting individual measures to be aggregated involve standards of (a) item content (construct approach) and (b) item/criterion association (empirical approach). Personality trait scales of different lengths were assembled for this study in order to represent features of the construct and empirical methods of selection. It was observed that (a) although reliability and validity generally increased with test length, aggregation beyond a certain point can fail to be expedient; and (b) although the prediction performance of empirically derived measures initially surpassed that of construct based assessments, the superiority of the empirical scales did not generalize to trait criteria that were not used as a basis for item selection. The data are interpreted as providing support for a theory-based program of test development where substantive considerations involving item content play a major role. The findings are also viewed as encouragement for conventional conceptualizations about organized dimensions of behavior.