Sex, hypermasculinity, and hyperfemininity in perception of social cues in neutral interactions

Sexual coercion is a prevalent problem on U.S. college campuses. One potential avenue by which it may occur is the misinterpretation of social cues, and such misperception may be mediated by extreme sex role adherence, i.e., hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity. 62 undergraduate students viewed a film of a neutral interaction between a college-aged man and woman. Subsequently, participants indicated which behaviors they remembered the opposite-sex actor performing, offered a prediction as to the outcome of the scenario and what they would do had they been in a similar situation, and then completed either the Hypermasculinity Inventory or the Hyperfemininity Scale. Scores on the former correlated negatively with recall accuracy, and men indicated that they were more likely to date and have sex with the actress than women reported being likely to date or have sex with the actor. Women reported a high perceived likelihood of dating the actor coupled with the expectation that he would have sex with the actress. Likewise, women expected to be sexually coerced by the actor had they been in a similar situation. Social implications of these findings and possible research are discussed.