Sexual Consent Perceptions of a Fictional Vignette: A Latent Growth Curve Model

Malachi Willis,Kristen N Jozkowski

doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02048-y

Abstract

Sexual consent can be conceptualized as a process of accumulating cues that build toward and continue throughout a consensual sexual encounter. How people perceive the cues of others during this process is an important aspect of consent. However, previous research has not investigated the trajectories of people’s consent perceptions throughout such a process. Using a novel staggered vignette protocol, we examined participants’ (N = 1218; 64.4% female) perceptions of fictional targets’ sexual consent at 11 time points. We tested latent growth curve models using multilevel structural equation modeling to examine trajectories in consent perceptions over the course of the vignette. We hypothesized that mean differences and rates of change would be associated with several constructs relevant to sexual consent. We found that initial consent perceptions and trends over the course of the vignette varied by whether the participant was a university student, by an alcohol manipulation in the vignette, by the fictional target’s sex, and by type of sexual behavior. Researchers should examine whether our findings on consent perceptions of a fictional vignette extend to people’s actual sexual encounters, including potential associations between the three primary aspects of sexual consent: perceptions, feelings, and communication.

Highlights

Investigating how people perceive sexual consent can help understand consensual sexual encounters
We found that participants perceived the targets as more likely to be willing to engage in sexual activity as consent cues—communicative and contextual—accumulated
We found university students to be more hesitant than non-students to perceive the fictional targets as willing to engage in sexual activity, which might reflect the emphasis that consent education programs have placed on college campuses

Summary

Introduction

Investigating how people perceive sexual consent can help understand consensual sexual encounters. A recent review of the sexual consent literature identified and described three prevailing conceptualizations of sexual consent: consent as an internal feeling, consent as external communication, and consent as a perception of someone else’s willingness (Muehlenhard et al, 2016). Because internal feelings of consent are intangible, laws, policies, and many researchers are not keen to prioritize this definition of consent; instead, they emphasize the words and behaviors—explicit or implicit—that may be used to try to communicate or infer willingness (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999). Explicit communication involves a person clearly and unambiguously communicating to another person that they agree to engage in a sexual behavior, while implicit communication suggests agreement via indirect signals that can either be active or passive (Muehlenhard et al, 2016). We focused on this last aspect: perceptions of others’ sexual consent

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