Individual and Situational Influences on Men’s Responses to Dating and Social Situations

Abstract

This study employed multilevel modeling to evaluate individual and situational influences on men's responses to hypothetical dating and social situations. Three hundred and fifty college men completed measures assessing their propensity for sexual aggression and provided written responses to 10 written vignettes, each of which was followed by four statements provided by women that varied in their degree of effectiveness in decreasing victimization risk. Rape-supportive attitudes, poor heterosocial perception, earlier age of first sexual experience, and number of lifetime sexual partners were significant predictors of sexually aggressive responses. The presence of alcohol use, social isolation, relationship intimacy, and less effective responses from the woman involved also were significant predictors of sexually aggressive responses. Certain individual risk factors (i.e., poor heterosocial perception, rape-supportive attitudes) showed a stronger relationship to sexually aggressive responses in the context of situational risk factors (i.e., alcohol use, isolation). These findings indicate the importance of assessing both individual and situational influences on men's risk for engaging in sexually aggressive behavior.