Journal article
Dynamic competition account of men’s perceptions of women’s sexual interest
Cognition, Vol.174, pp.43-54
05/2018
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.12.016
PMID: 29407605
Abstract
[Display omitted]
•A dynamic account of decision making is broadly applicable to sexual perception.•Online decisional competition dynamics are linked to clinically relevant attitudes.•Sexual aggression risk is related to online and offline aspects of sexual perception.•Online measures account for variability in attitudes over and above offline measures.
This work applies a dynamic competition framework of decision making to the domain of sexual perception, which is linked theoretically and empirically to college men’s risk for exhibiting sexual coercion and aggression toward female acquaintances. Within a mouse-tracking paradigm, 152 undergraduate men viewed full-body photographs of women who varied in affect (sexual interest or rejection), clothing style (provocative or conservative), and attractiveness, and decided whether each woman currently felt sexually interested or rejecting. Participants’ mouse movements were recorded to capture competition dynamics during online processing (throughout the decisional process), and as an index of the final categorical decision (endpoint of the decisional process). Participants completed a measure of Rape-Supportive Attitudes (RSA), a well-established correlate of male-initiated sexual aggression toward female acquaintances. Mixed-effects analyses revealed greater curvature toward the incorrect response on conceptually incongruent trials (e.g., rejecting and dressed provocatively) than on congruent trials (e.g., rejecting and dressed conservatively). This suggests that the two decision alternatives are simultaneously active and compete continuously over time, consistent with a dynamic competition account. Congruence effects also emerged at the decisional endpoint; accuracy was typically lower when stimulus features were incongruent, rather than congruent. RSA potentiated online congruence effects (intermediate states of behavior) but not offline congruence effects (endpoint states of behavior). In a hierarchical regression analysis, online processing indices accounted for unique variability in RSA above and beyond offline accuracy rates. The process-based account of men’s sexual-interest judgments ultimately may point to novel targets for prevention strategies designed to reduce acquaintance-initiated sexual aggression on college campuses.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Dynamic competition account of men’s perceptions of women’s sexual interest
- Creators
- Jodi R Smith - University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, United StatesTeresa A Treat - University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, United StatesThomas A Farmer - University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, United StatesBob McMurray - University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Cognition, Vol.174, pp.43-54
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.12.016
- PMID
- 29407605
- ISSN
- 0010-0277
- eISSN
- 1873-7838
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2018
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984070837102771
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