The relationship between men's sexual aggression inside and outside the laboratory

The purpose of this study was to develop a laboratory analogue of sexually aggressive behavior. Subjects viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and violent-sexual film vignettes and chose a vignette to show to a female confederate. Among highly sexually aggressive men (n = 25) according to the Coercive Sexuality Scale (CSS; Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984), 24% showed the sexual-violent vignette and 28% showed the violent-sexual vignette. Among men who did not report being sexually aggressive on the CSS (n = 13), none showed the sexual-violent vignette and only one showed the violent-sexual vignette. The between-group difference in vignette showing was statistically significant (p < .024). Subjects who showed the sexually aggressive vignettes reported that the female confederate was upset (p < .0001) and uncomfortable (p < .0001) in viewing these vignettes more than the subjects did who showed the neutral vignette. These results support the validity of this film-showing procedure as a laboratory analogue of sexually aggressive behavior.