Page 304 - The Social Animal

286 The Social Animal

that involved teaching either a male or a female confederate some
nonsense syllables. The men were instructed to administer electric
shocks to the confederate when he or she gave incorrect answers;
they were also allowed to choose whatever level of shock they wished
to use. (Unknown to the subjects, no shocks were actually delivered.)
Those men who had earlier seen the rape film subsequently admin-
istered the most intense shocks—but only to the female confederate.
Similarly, Malamuth conducted an experiment in which male
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college students viewed one of two erotic films. One version portrayed
two mutually consenting adults engaged in lovemaking; the other ver-
sion portrayed a rape incident. After viewing the film, the men were
asked to engage in sexual fantasy.The men who had watched the rape
version of the film created more violent sexual fantasies than those who
had watched the mutual consent version. In another experiment, 93
Malamuth and Check arranged for college students to watch either a
violent, sexually explicit film or a film with no violent or sexual acts.
Several days later, the students filled out a Sexual Attitude Survey. For
the male students, exposure to the violent, sexually explicit film in-
creased their acceptance of violence against women. In addition, these
males came to believe certain myths about rape—for example, that
women provoke rape and actually enjoy being raped.
I should point out that, in general, the belief in the rape myth is
not limited to men. In a survey of university women, Malamuth and
94
his colleagues found that, while not a single woman felt that she
personally would derive any pleasure from being overpowered sexu-
ally, a substantial percentage believed that some other women might.
Again, exposure to aggressive pornography tends to increase the ten-
dency of men to believe the rape myth. There is some evidence in-
dicating that this myth is not necessarily part of a deep-seated belief
system. For example, in one study, when college men were shown a
pornographically aggressive film, their belief in the rape myth in-
creased as predicted. But after the film, when they were provided
with an explanation of the experimental procedure, they became less
accepting of the rape myth than a control group that neither viewed
the film nor received the explanation. 95
Although this finding is encouraging, it should not lull us into
complacency, for the data also suggest that a steady diet of violent
pornography can lead to emotional desensitization and callused atti-
tudes regarding violence against women. Moreover, there is reason to