Dynamic competition account of men’s perceptions of women’s sexual interest

Smith, Jodi R.; Treat, Teresa A.; Farmer, Thomas A.; McMurray, Bob

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.12.016

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Szumski et al (2018) also made this observation, and we support their argument that emerging dynamic measures of implicit cognition (e.g., computer mouse-tracking; Freeman & Ambady, 2010) could provide novel insights into rape-supportive cognition—particularly subtle rape justification—in a manner that is, by design, free from social desirability biases. This method was recently employed by Smith, Treat, Farmer, and McMurray (2018) who found that undergraduate males’ mouse trajectories indicated a greater tendency to ascribe sexual interest to female models dressed provocatively than conservatively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excusing and Justifying Rape Cognitions in Judgments of Sexually Coercive Dating Scenarios

2019

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According to recent analyses, Bumby’s RAPE scale of rape-supportive cognitions about women and sexual assault comprises two factors. Excusing rape serves to reduce abusers’ culpability for their offending, and ascribing blame to victims, while justifying rape is associated with a sense of sexual entitlement. The distinct effects of these factors on rape judgments have not yet been investigated. We examined whether these belief clusters differentially explained judgments of perpetrator innocence after priming cues related to each of them. We used a cross-sectional design ( N = 217) to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that excusing rape cognitions contributed to exaggerated innocence judgments when the victim paid the bill on a first date (potentially indicative of romantic or sexual interest). However, contrary to expectations, there was no evidence that participants justified rape when the perpetrator paid the bill. Implications for conceptualizing the functions of rape-supportive cognitions are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excusing and Justifying Rape Cognitions in Judgments of Sexually Coercive Dating Scenarios

2019

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“…In the mouse-tracking paradigm (Dshemuchadse, Scherbaum, & Goschke, 2013; Huette & McMurray, 2010; Kieslich & Hilbig, 2014; Spivey, Grosjean, & Knoblich, 2005), participants view or hear a target stimulus and then move a computer mouse toward one of several response options (see Fig. 2c for a trial from our recent application of this procedure to sexual-interest judgments; Smith, Treat, Farmer, & McMurray, 2018). As the participant moves the mouse, its streaming x, y coordinates are recorded.…”

Section: Does Dynamic Competition Underlie Sexual-interest Judgments?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study (Smith et al, 2018), this approach was used to examine the real-time dynamics of college men’s decisions about women’s sexual-interest cues. College men completed mouse-tracking trials with photographs of women portraying either extreme sexual interest or extreme rejection, according to highly reliable expert judges.…”

Section: Does Dynamic Competition Underlie Sexual-interest Judgments?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking Men’s Perceptions of Women’s Sexual Interest

Treat

McMurray

Betty

et al. 2019

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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Judging a woman’s current sexual interest in a specific man is a socially and emotionally complex decision. These judgments can be considered a form of perceptual decision-making in which men integrate both affective (emotional) and nonaffective cues. College men at risk of sexual aggression rely less on women’s affective cues and more on nonaffective cues, suggesting that cognitive processes may matter for real-world problems. However, in the real world, people may not have the luxury of waiting for processes to complete before they act. Recent work has used dynamic-competition models of decision-making to examine this problem. These models assume that affective judgments (such as interested vs. rejecting) are partially activated by multiple cues and compete over time. This work, in which mouse tracking is used to index partial decision states, demonstrates that on-line measures predict rape-supportive attitudes over and above off-line (judgment) measures. This offers a new way to understand the cognitive core of an important societal problem.

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“…When participants had to click the "Like" response for Black people, mouse trajectories tended to initially gravitate towards the "Dislike" option, before clicking on 'Like'. More recently, Harper, Bartels, and Hogue (2016) used mousetracking to examine people's evaluative judgments of pedophiles, while Smith, Treat, Farmer, and McMurray (2018) used it to investigate the factors that influence whether a woman is perceived (by men) as being sexually interested or rejecting. Thus, using MD and AUC data, mousetracking offers a sensitive measure of real-time processing (e.g., detecting partially committed responses, even if not ultimately selected).…”

Section: Mousetrackingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking Mouse Trajectories Related to Decisions About Sexual Interest

2019

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The current research explored continuous behavioral processes by recording participants' hand movements towards a response option using Mousetracker software. Across three studies, we tested the idea that sexual interest-related decisions can be indexed using automatic movements. Using a UK sample of self-identified same and opposite-gender attracted men (N = 43), Study 1 showed that the process of approaching the response button is faster, more direct, and less curved when participants respond from their own (vs. a nonpreferred) perspective. Study 2 supported these findings using a German sample of selfidentified same-and opposite-gender attracted men (N = 66). Using a teleiophilic sample of 100 self-identified opposite-gender attracted men (n = 51) and women (n = 49), Study 3 examined age-specific sexual interests (i.e., responding to stimuli from a pedophilic and a teleiophilic perspective). As expected, in the teleiophilic block, participants' responses were faster, more direct, and less curved than in the pedophilic block. Collectively, the results suggest that mousetracking shows promise as a measure of sexual interest (across the dimension of both gender and age), providing grounds for future research.

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Dynamic competition account of men’s perceptions of women’s sexual interest

Cited by 5 publications

References 65 publications

Excusing and Justifying Rape Cognitions in Judgments of Sexually Coercive Dating Scenarios

Excusing and Justifying Rape Cognitions in Judgments of Sexually Coercive Dating Scenarios

Tracking Men’s Perceptions of Women’s Sexual Interest

Tracking Mouse Trajectories Related to Decisions About Sexual Interest

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