Friday, March 08, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC – After a few drinks, some young men tend to think sexual aggression toward women is okay, and a team of UNCW researchers wants to know why.

Armed with a $600,000 five-year grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Nora E. Noel, James D. Johnson and Lee A. Jackson Jr. are expanding earlier research studying the effects of alcohol consumption on judgments of acquaintance rape.

“We found that young men who were intoxicated were more accepting of sexual coercion than men who were sober and were more likely to believe that if sexual aggression took place the woman was partly responsible,” Noel said of the 2000 study.

“The ultimate goals of our current research program (titled “An Alcohol Myopia Explanation of Sexual Aggression”) are to develop a comprehensive, theoretically based model of alcohol’s involvement in sexual aggression and to use that research-based knowledge to develop effective mechanisms for reducing prevalence of sexual aggression among young adults,” she said.



To do that they will bring young males into the lab to view videotaped interactions between a couple on a first date and then make judgments regarding the acceptability of sexual aggression by the man in the scenario. Before viewing the videotape, participants will consume one of four alcohol doses (none, placebo, low or moderate).

“We expect that the stimuli in the videotapes will interact with the participants' alcohol doses to produce a greater or lesser likelihood of acceptance of sexual aggression,” Noel said. “Our goal is to discover ways to reduce the likelihood of sexual aggression in a dating situation, even when alcohol is involved.”

Noel cited surveys that have shown up to 30 percent of women on college campuses have encountered incidents of sexual coercion (Abbey, 1991), and one that reported about 15 percent of undergraduate males say they threatened to or actually used a weapon to force sexual intercourse (Rappaport & Burkhart, 1984). Another study showed that alcohol consumption by one or both parties appears to play an important role in these incidents (Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987).

Stephen A. Maisto of Syracuse University is a consultant in the current study.

Note to Media: Additional information can be obtained by contacting Dr. Nora Noel at 910.962.4044.