Genital Responses to Rape Vignettes Among Young Men: The Influence of Mood and Directed Attention.

Although it is clear that men with a history of sexual assaults against women produce higher relative genital responses to rape vignettes in the laboratory than do men without such a history, it remains unclear what aspects of the vignettes are eliciting these responses, and whether the genital responses are affected by situational factors. The antisocial tendencies hypothesis states that many men are inhibited by cues of violence, suffering, and coercion in rape vignettes, but other men, particularly antisocial and sexually aggressive men, are not so inhibited. In this study, we investigated whether the hypothesized inhibition to rape vignettes among nonoffenders could be affected by manipulation of mood and directed attention. A total of 48 young men were exposed to audio-recorded vignettes describing mutually consenting and nonviolent sexual interactions, mutually consenting and violent sexual interactions, nonconsenting and violent sexual interactions, and nonsexual and nonviolent social interactions (within-subjects). Participants were randomly assigned to a mood manipulation designed to induce a happy, neutral, or sad mood (between-subjects). All were asked to pay attention to either sex words or violent words while listening to the vignettes (within-subjects). As is typically observed, genital responses were lower (inhibited) when vignettes included cues of violence or nonconsent. Both happy and sad mood inductions reduced this inhibition, so that men induced into a happy or sad mood showed greater relative responding to cues of violence or nonconsent compared with men in a neutral mood. The attention manipulation had no significant effect. Results suggest that genital responses to rape cues can be situationally influenced, but not necessarily as predicted by the antisocial tendencies hypothesis.

Nudity as a Disinhibiting Cue in a Date Rape Analogue.

Situational factors likely play a role in date rape. The sexual inhibition hypothesis suggests that men are typically sexually inhibited by violence and non-consent, but that inhibition can also be disrupted. We attempted to determine if female nudity reduces inhibition of sexual arousal to non-consensual cues in sexually non-aggressive men. In two studies, heterosexual men (aged 18-25) were presented with six 2-min audiotaped narratives depicting consensual sexual interactions, non-consensual sexual interactions (rape), and non-sexual interactions (neutral) involving a man and a woman. In the first study, 20 participants saw pictures depicting nude or clothed women while listening to the stories. In the second study, 20 other participants saw videos depicting nude or clothed women exercising, also while listening to the stories. Genital responses and subjective sexual arousal were measured. Results suggested that nudity may have a disinhibitory effect on sexual arousal to non-consensual cues, but only when presented in the form of moving images.