Penile Tumescence and Perceptual Responses to Rape as a Function of Victim's Perceived Reactions1

Abstract

Seventy‐five male students participated in an experiment designed to address two interrelated issues. The first concerned conflicting findings regarding nondeviants' sexual responsiveness to rape depictions. In the present experiment, a rape portrayal in which the assailant perceived that the victim became sexually aroused was found to result in high sexual arousal (as indicated by penile tumescence) in comparison to a rape emphasizing the victim's abhorrence of the assault. These differences would appear to successfully reconcile earlier conflicting data. In addressing the second issue, it was found that exposures that portrayed rape in a relatively negative or “positive” manner affected subsequent reactions to rape. More specifically, sexual responsiveness to rape was inhibited following an earlier exposure to a depiction emphasizing a rape victim's abhorrence, while undesirable cognitive‐perceptual changes occurred as a result of exposure to a rape depiction portraying the victim as sexually aroused. Further, self‐reported possibility of engaging in rape was found to correlate with callous attitudes to rape and with selfreported sexual arousal to violent sexuality in a predicted pattern.