Egalitarian, sexist, and aggressive sexual materials: Attitude effects and viewer responses

I examined attitudinal effects of, and evaluative and cognitive responses to, three types of sexually explicit scenes: egalitarian, sexist, and sexually aggressive. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, I hypothesized that the three types of scenes should have different effects on attitudes relevant to sexual equality and sexual aggression. Undergraduate males (N = 115) were assigned either to a control group or to view two scenes representative of one of the three categories, and completed evaluative ratings, thought‐listing tasks, and measures of sexual attitudes and beliefs. Type of scene viewed had no effect on attitudes, but participants' evaluative and cognitive reactions were most negative following sexually aggressive scenes and most positive following egalitarian scenes. Although attitude change did not occur, negative reactions to sexist and aggressive scenes may lead to rejection of the implicit, antisocial messages in such portrayals.