Perceptual Differences in Assessing the Harm of Patronizing Adult Entertainment Clubs

Abstract

Prostitution is one of the most severe social problems in Taiwan and a long-term concern of numerous studies (Chiu, 1991). Although it is illegal, prostitution appears almost everywhere in hotels, night clubs, underworld brothels, massage parlors, teahouses, hair salons in business districts as well as residential areas. Among places of prostitution, adult entertainment clubs are the most widespread (Hwang & Bedford, 2003). According to a survey by the Taiwan Academia Sinica in 1994, 68 percent of the respondents perceived prostitution as a serious or very serious problem for Taiwanese society (Chang & Fu, 2002). In 2001, the percentage of Taiwanese who perceived prostitution as a serious or very serious social problem increased to 75 percent. Previous research on prostitution focused on assessing public attitudes toward prostitution and the sex industry (Chang, 1997; Chang & Liu, 2003; Yang, 2003). Other studies analyzed the problem from a legal and policy-making perspective to explore approaches to restrict adult entertainment establishments (Cheng, 2000; C. C. Hsu & Y. S. Chen, 2003; H. Y. Hsu & C. Y. Chen, 2003; Yang, Yi, & Chiu, 2003). None of the previous studies, however, examined the public’s perceptions of the harm of adult entertainment clubs, especially the perceptual discrepancy in assessing the vulnerability of self relative to others. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by exploring the perceived harm of visiting adult entertainment clubs and whether the perceived harm will influence the public’s support for restrictions on the sex trade. In the context of assessing the effect of media content, the third-person effect hypothesis proposes that people tend to perceive mass media as having a greater effect on others than on self (Davison, 1983). Numerous third-person effect studies suggest that people who tend to overestimate media effects on others are more likely to support restrictions on media content to protect the others (Gunther, 1991; Lo & Wei, 2002; Salwen, 1998). In the context of assessing vulnerability to risks such as contracting HIV/AIDS, the optimistic bias hypothesis holds that people tend to underestimate their probability of encountering negative life events (Weinstein, 1980). The hypothesis explains why people fail to take preventive action (Chapin, 2001). With a self–other comparative perspective, the present study has two goals: (1) it seeks to examine the self–other gap in perceiving the negative influence of sex clubs, with an emphasis on the role of personal experience in visiting these clubs as an influence on the perceptual discrepancy; (2) the study investigates the gender difference in self–other comparisons and in support for restrictions on sex clubs because the relationship between gender and perceptual bias regarding risks