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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). ...
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.
... Past research has found that these two constructs-historical sexual coercion and sexual assault proclivity-are weakly correlated (r = 0.10; Calhoun, Bernat, Clum, & Frame, 1997;Greendlinger & Byrne, 1987;Malamuth, 1988). Nevertheless, intentions, such as having a proclivity for sexual assault, can influence risk for and later engagement in acts of sexual coercion (Malamuth, 1989). Supporting this notion, a study by Gidycz et al. (2011) showed that sexual assault proclivity predicted engaging in sexually aggressive acts over a three-month period. ...
... Sexual Assault Proclivity was measured using three questions (see Fig. 1) developed by the researchers leading the national study to investigate risk factors and treatment considerations for sexual misconduct in college men (e.g., Lamade et al., 2018;Malamuth et al., 2021). Two of the questions were derived from the likelihood to use force or rape questions from the Attraction to Sexual Aggression scale (Malamuth, 1989) and one question was taken from a modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Malamuth et al., 2021) that measured whether the participant may have ever engaged in sexually assaultive behavior. The latter item was rated on a dichotomous scale (i.e., no/yes) while the other two items were rated on a 3-point Likert scale of 0 (No), 1 (Maybe), or 2 (Yes). ...
Free access: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hJ1lAlNEi1OO
Background: Conceptual models of sexual violence against women suggest that psychopathic traits and aspects of hypersexuality are important risk factors in a variety of populations. In college samples, studies have yet to examine (1) whether sex drive as a component of hypersexuality is linked with sexual violence and (2) whether both psychopathic traits and sex drive are uniquely associated with sexual violence (i.e., proclivity for sexual assault, prior sexual coercion), beyond other known risk factors and each other.
Methods: A structural equation modeling approach was used to examine a large representative sample of college men (N = 1148; Mage = 20.09, SD = 2.16) assessed for known risk factors of sexual violence, their sexual assault proclivity, and prior sexual coercion.
Findings: Latent psychopathy and sex drive factors were moderately associated; however, only the psychopathic traits factor was linked to both sexual assault proclivity and prior sexual coercion—over age, empathy, and alcohol use—whereas the sex drive factor associated with sexual assault proclivity.
Conclusion: Psychopathy was the strongest factor linked to sexual violence in this national sample of college men. Consistent with increasing attention as a risk component, sex drive also accounted for sexually violent risk factors.
... This item averaged together two questions for a mean score on rape proclivity (α = .76). The first question asked, "How likely would you be to force another person to do something sexual even if she didn't want to?" (Malamuth, 1989). The second question reads, "How likely would you be to have sex with another person who was too intoxicated to resist your sexual advances?" ...
... The second question reads, "How likely would you be to have sex with another person who was too intoxicated to resist your sexual advances?" This second question was created from the Perpetrator History Scale (Lisak et al., 2000) and a question from Malamuth's (1989) study. Both questions included the caveat of "if you were assured that no one would know and that you could in no way be punished." ...
The two constructs of rape myth acceptance (RMA) and rape proclivity are associated with sexual violence (SV) perpetration. Further understanding these constructs can help improve prevention efforts aimed at reducing SV perpetration. Latent profile analysis was conducted to examine typologies of RMA among 474 incoming college men and found that male college students can be categorized into four profiles. Some groups endorsed lower or mid-levels of rape myths (RMs) and others endorsed higher levels of some or all RMs, indicating the heterogeneity of RM beliefs. And within each subgroup of college men's RMA, intention to join an all-male sports team and/or a fraternity (two risk factors) and bystander attitudes (a protective factor) were examined as covariates in the model. Bystander attitudes appear to act as a protective factor as they are higher among profiles of men with lower RMA. Furthermore, this study examined the four subgroups (latent profiles) of college men based on their RMA to examine whether membership within each subgroup/profile is differentially associated with rape proclivity. The findings indicate that subgroups of men with high levels of RMA have higher mean rape proclivity scores compared to the subgroup of men with the lowest level of RMA. Implications for prevention programming tailored for high-risk groups of men, based on their RMA beliefs, as well as possible future research within this area are discussed.
... Both programs were adequate based on withingroup analyses. The treatment conditions were effective in reducing rape myth acceptance (Payne et al., 1999), the likelihood of perpetrating rape (Malamuth, 1989), and the likelihood of perpetrating sexual assault (Malamuth, 1989); empathy towards survivors (Deitz, Blackwell, Daley, & Bentley, 1982) increased. Compared to the control group, the bystander treatment group resulted in a lower likelihood of perpetrating sexual assault, lower rape myth acceptance, and increased empathy towards survivors, but no difference in the likelihood of perpetrating rape. ...
... Both programs were adequate based on withingroup analyses. The treatment conditions were effective in reducing rape myth acceptance (Payne et al., 1999), the likelihood of perpetrating rape (Malamuth, 1989), and the likelihood of perpetrating sexual assault (Malamuth, 1989); empathy towards survivors (Deitz, Blackwell, Daley, & Bentley, 1982) increased. Compared to the control group, the bystander treatment group resulted in a lower likelihood of perpetrating sexual assault, lower rape myth acceptance, and increased empathy towards survivors, but no difference in the likelihood of perpetrating rape. ...
Sexual assault is prevalent on college campuses, with research showing that one in five undergraduate college women will be victims of sexual assault. Previous research has identified highly-masculine settings in higher education, such as fraternities and male athletic teams, as high-risk populations for sexual assault perpetration, resulting in the development of multiple interventions targeted at these groups. To date the effectiveness of these programs among this subpopulation has not been examined, as such, this systematic review examined the effectiveness of sexual assault interventions aimed towards fraternities and male collegiate athletic teams. To synthesize the existing scientific evidence five databases were searched resulting in a 5859-article screening. A total of 10 articles met full text criteria. Qualitative synthesis of these articles provided evidence to support the effectiveness of these programs in preventing sexual assault from these high-risk and highly masculine groups. A meta-analysis of five intervention effects among fraternity members indicated promising effects in the reduction of rape myth beliefs. Given the disproportionate number of sexual assault intervention programs aimed at fraternity members, future intervention programs should also target men in collegiate athletic teams.
... For example, the attributions of responsibility were based on a structure informed by Shaver's (1985) work on attribution. Consequently, the dependent variables selected allowed tests of the release theory and group polarization hypotheses while also being implicated as important reactions to sexual assault in previous work (e.g., intentions; Malamuth, 1989). 2 Files with the set of instructions, details of the questionnaire items, and the SPSS data set are available at: osf.io/ck3br. ...
... Intentions toward Sexual Assault Behaviors. Participants responded to three items that measured intentions to participate in sexual assault (Malamuth, 1989). Participants were asked how likely they would "watch, cheer, and enjoy yourself," "be the first person to have intercourse with the woman," and "have intercourse with the woman after other men did" if they were in a situation similar to the scene they had previously watched, and with no consequences for their actions. ...
This research examines how group discussion may influence males’ inclinations toward sexual assault. This experiment tested two competing explanations of how reactions toward a sexual assault scene are affected by group discussion. Group polarization predicts that strong or weak inclinations toward sexual assault among group members become exaggerated with group discussion. Accordingly, because unfavorable opinions of sexual assault are most prevalent, then discussion exaggerates this tendency such that group members’ reactions toward sexual assault will be even more unfavorable for sexual assault after group discussion. Alternatively, release theory proposes that group interaction allows members to follow their impulses by disinhibiting social constraints such that group discussion would exaggerate inclinations toward sexual assault among group members. The results of an experiment in which participants watched a video depiction involving a sexual assault and then gave responses related to similar situations showed a pattern of results providing support for group polarization and no support for release theory. Therefore, group discussion can be a positive social influence on tendencies toward anti-social behavior if those inclinations are not widespread among group members. This finding can inform prevention programs aimed at reducing permissive attitudes toward sexual violence and sexual assault occurrences.
... Although it is believed that antisocial thinking is more common among individuals who committed rape than those who offended against children (Knight & Thornton, 2007), recent research reveals that general antisocial thinking is found to be related to both types of sexual offending (Walters et al., 2009). Similarly, antisocial cognitions, such as beliefs supportive of interpersonal violence, hostile masculinity, and entitlement, are related to self-reported perpetration of sexual violence (Hill & Fischer, 2001;Malamuth, 1989;Truman et al., 1996). ...
... Further, endorsing attitudes of misogyny and violence is believed to be more common among university men who reported committing repeated acts of sexual violence than those who committed one isolated act of sexual violence (Hall et al., 2006). University students who hold a high number of rape supportive cognitions or hostile sexist attitudes report a higher likelihood to rape as well (Durán et al., 2016;Malamuth, 1989). ...
Very little contemporary research has investigated the similarities and
differences between individuals convicted of sexual offences and
community samples with reference to beliefs supportive of sexual
violence. This study compared the rape supportive cognitions of a
group of high-risk individuals incarcerated for sexual offences to a
group of university students. Antisocial cognitions were also examined
in order to determine if such views accounted for any observed
findings. A group of 304 male university students were compared to
301 men convicted of sexual offences attending assessment or
treatment in an inpatient based treatment programme. Results
indicated no significant differences between the rape supportive
cognitions and antisocial cognition of people convicted of sexual
offences and university students. Further analyses revealed that
students who endorsed more rape supportive and antisocial cognitions
reported using more coercive and aggressive tactics.
... Examples of rape myths include beliefs that women mean "yes" when they say "no," rape is often the woman's fault, and women enjoy being raped. Importantly, men's endorsement of rape myths has been significantly and positively associated with attitudinal and behavioral indicators of sexual aggression against women, including acceptance of interpersonal violence (Payne et al., 1999), adversarial sexual beliefs (Payne et al., 1999), attraction to sexual aggression (Malamuth, 1989), sexual assault perpetration (see Yapp & Quayle, 2018, for a review), and rape proclivity and likelihood of raping (O'Connor, 2021;Seabrook et al., 2018). Given the consistent associations of rape myth adherence with different indicators of sexual aggression against women, researchers have examined sociocultural and dispositional factors that may underlie men's endorsement of rape myths. ...
This study extended research on men’s rape myth acceptance (RMA) by examining the relative contributions of conformity to masculine norms and the Dark Tetrad of personality to RMA in 301 predominantly White and heterosexual men in the United States. Results of hierarchical regressions revealed that conformity to masculine norms and the Dark Tetrad each accounted for incremental variance (i.e., beyond the other variable set) in men’s RMA, with conformity to power over women and heterosexual self-presentation norms and psychopathy emerging as unique and positive predictors. Results of post hoc mediation analyses indicated that psychopathy’s relation to RMA was partially to fully mediated through conformity to the power over women norm. Results of correlations supported hypothesized associations of conformity to power over women and violence norms with psychopathy and sadism, conformity to the risk-taking norm with psychopathy, and conformity to the playboy norm with three of the four Dark Tetrad traits.
... Other behavioral intent scales frame questions as how likely a participant would be to do the listed activity. For example, Malamuth (1989) Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale asks, "If you could be assured of not being caught or punished, how likely would you be to rape?" Condelli (1998)'s Contraceptive Utilities, Intention, and Knowledge Scale asks, "How likely do you think it is that you will use birth control every time you have intercourse over the next year?" Similarly, the ACS scale will ask participants how likely they are to do a certain sexual consent behavior in the future when they engage in sexual activity. ...
Research suggests one in five women will experience sexual assault during their college careers. However, college’s sexual assault prevention education (SAPE) programs vary widely in their length, content, and effectiveness. There is currently no validated scale to measure students’ sexual consent intentions as taught in SAPE. This dissertation sought to create a valid and reliable scale to measure sexual consent, called Adherence to Sexual Consent – Behavioral Intentions (ASC-BI). Additionally, many SAPE programs are atheoretical; therefore, this work examines if theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides decent explanation of ASC-BI.
Two samples were collected including a national sample of 500 undergraduate MTurk workers and a local sample 369 IU students. Participants completed the survey online via a Qualtrics survey. Results suggested a 5-factor solution for ASC-BI provided good fit; factors include seeking consent, giving consent, refusing unwanted sexual activity, accepting refusal, and sexual communication. Additionally, results suggested the TPB provides a good model for explaining ASC-BI. TPB cognitions, including attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control, fully mediated the relationship between SAPE messages and ASC-BI. Finally, positive attitudes towards consent were a better predictor of ASC-BI compared to rape myth acceptance. Results provide practioners and researchers with a valid tool for measuring sexual consent intentions. Additionally, results suggest practioners should include TPB cognitions as mediating variables when assessing effectiveness of SAPE and focus on positive attitude change instead of eliminating rape myths.
... The questionnaire we employed was created for the purpose of this study. In previous studies, researchers employed the following methods: (a) the description of a fictional account of a reported rape in combination with a questionnaire created for the specific purposes of their study (Whatley & Riggio, 1992, 1993, (b) movie rating questionnaires in combination with the employment of specific films and tests such as the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale and the Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence Scale in an experimental design (Burt, 1980), (c) a test i.e., the Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale (Malamuth, 1989), and (d) a combination of more than two instruments (Weisz & Earls, 1995). ...
Literature on sexual harassment and violence against women describes a variety of myths and stereotypes regarding partial or total responsibility of rape victims and their “enjoyment” of sexual violence. Rape stigma and rape myths are aspects of generalized attitudes toward victims of rape and rapists, while it seems that sexual violence remains a taboo in today’s western societies. This study explores Greek university students’ attitudes towards rape. A questionnaire created for the purpose of this study was administered to 950 Greek students at the University of Athens and at the University of Ioannina, divided into three groups: a group of students from the Faculty of Law, a group from Departments orientated to Humanistic and Social Sciences and a group of students from other Faculties and Departments of Applied Sciences. Factor analysis revealed four factors: “Rape victim’s responsibility”, “Defining the concept of rape”, “Rape motivation” and “Rapist’s characteristics”. In line with previous research findings, the results indicated that women were less accepting of conservative attitudes
towards rape than men; they also seemed to reject attitudes of “blaming the victim” more, and to hold negative views of rapists. Additionally, the results showed that students of rural origin retain more conservative attitudes with respect to the victim’s responsibility and the rapist’s characteristics than students of urban origin. Finally, students in Law Departments seemed to have accepted more moderate attitudes than the other two groups of students; they mostly disagree with conservative attitudes regarding victim’s responsibilities along with the Social Science students, but they agree more with Applied Sciences students in defining rape.
The assessment of individuals who rape is a fundamental component of risk management and effective rehabilitation. Rapists are an extremely heterogeneous offender group and important differences between rapists and other sexual offenders have been noted. Such diversity underscores the importance of assessment but also poses a significant challenge to evaluators who work with this type of sexual offender. There are a number of different areas that are relevant when assessing rapists in addition to several different methodologies for gathering relevant information. This chapter reviews the methodological issues associated with common assessment methods used with rapists, including nosological diagnoses, risk to reoffend, and the identification of treatment need.
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)
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.
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)
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.
"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).
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.
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.
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.
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.