Explicit Verbal Sexual Consent Communication: Effects of Gender, Relationship Status, and Type of Sexual Behavior

Willis, Malachi; Hunt, Mary E.; Wodika, Alicia; Rhodes, Darson; Goodman, Jessica; Jozkowski, Kristen N.

doi:10.1080/19317611.2019.1565793

Cited by 57 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…That we found greater endorsement of using explicit verbal cues than earlier studies on sexual consent may reflect an increased social desirability bias due to affirmative consent initiatives encouraging sexual communication that is explicit and verbal (Beres, 2014). Although Willis, Hunt, et al (2019) found that proportionally fewer women than men reported explicit verbal cues, our data suggested that women were more likely than the men to report having used explicit verbal cues. This discrepant finding regarding gender may be due to women being more comfortable communicating consent via explicit verbal cues within a committed relationship than they would in other contexts.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

Sexual Consent in Committed Relationships: A Dyadic Study

Willis

Murray

2021

Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy

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Sexual consent is a multidimensional construct that requires the participation of all involved in a sexual encounter; however, previous research has almost exclusively relied on one person's perspective. To address this, we collected open-and closed-ended data on sexual consent from 37 dyads in committed sexual relationships (N = 74). We found that relationship length was associated with sexual consent and couples who accurately perceived each other's consent communication cues reported elevated levels of internal consent feelings. Communicating willingness to engage in sexual activity remains important even within committed relationships. Preliminary findings suggest that further investigations of dyadic nuances of sexual consent are warranted.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

Sexual Consent in Committed Relationships: A Dyadic Study

Willis

Murray

2021

Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy

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“…Of note, we did not find internal or external sexual consent to be associated with gender, age, race/ethnicity, or relationship length in the tested models. Despite several studies finding cross-sectional differences in sexual consent between women and men (e.g., Hirsch et al, 2019;Willis, Hunt et al, 2019), such gender differences, for example, should not be assumed to be stable across contexts because people seem to be more dynamic than static in their internal and external sexual consent from one partnered sexual event to the another.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

Willis

Bridges

Veilleux

et al. 2021

The Journal of Sex Research

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Sexual consent is often conceptualized as an internal willingness to engage in sexual activity, which can be communicated externally to a sexual partner. Internal sexual consent comprises feelings of physical response, safety/comfort, arousal, agreement/want, and readiness; external sexual consent includes communication cues that may be explicit or implicit and verbal or nonverbal. Most previous research on sexual consent has focused on between-person differences; little attention has been devoted to examining the within-person variation of sexual consent across time. We conducted a 28-day experience sampling methodology (ESM) study with a sample of adults (N = 113) to assess fluctuations in internal and external sexual consent across a given person's sexual events. We found that more than 50% and up to 80% of the variance in sexual consent scores could be accounted for by within-person variability. The type of sexual behavior participants engaged in during a sexual event predicted their internal and external consent. Further, internal consent feelings predicted external consent communication. Overall, our findings provided initial evidence regarding the extent that situational contexts are relevant for sexual consent. ESM study designs may be used to further investigate the potential contextual, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors associated with internal and external sexual consent.

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“…However, different behaviors communicate consent and these may not be universal. Indeed, participants describe their "need" for consent depends on a number of factors (Willis et al, 2019) including length of relationship (Humphreys, 2007), sexual experience of the individual (Humphreys, 2005), gender (Humphreys, 2007;Humphreys & Herold, 2007), type of sexual act (Hall, 1998), and timing within the sexual scenario (Beres, 2014). These outward behaviors indicative of consent may not always reflect the cognitive feelings behind them (Muehlenhard, 1996): In fact only a mild to moderate relationship between internal (feelings of consenting) and external expressions (actually showing that one consents) of consent has been demonstrated (Jozkowski, Peterson, Sanders, Dennis, & Reece, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding How University Students Use Perceptions of Consent, Wantedness, and Pleasure in Labeling Rape

et al. 2020

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While the lack of consent is the only determining factor in considering whether a situation is rape or not, there is sufficient evidence that participants conflate wantedness with consent and pleasurableness with wantedness. Understanding how people appraise sexual scenarios may form the basis to develop appropriate educational packages. We conducted two large-scale qualitative studies in two UK universities in which participants read vignettes describing sexual encounters that were consensual or not, wanted or unwanted and pleasurable or not pleasurable. Participants provided free-text responses as to whether they perceived the scenarios to be rape or not and why they made these judgments. The second study replicated the results of the first and included a condition where participants imagined themselves as either the subject or initiator of the sexual encounter. The results indicate that a significant portion of our participants held attitudes reflecting rape myths and tended to blame the victim. Participants used distancing language when imagining themselves in the initiator condition. Participants indicated that they felt there were degrees of how much a scenario reflected rape rather than it simply being a dichotomy (rape or not). Such results indicate a lack of understanding of consent and rape and highlight avenues of potential educational materials for schools, universities or jurors.

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Explicit Verbal Sexual Consent Communication: Effects of Gender, Relationship Status, and Type of Sexual Behavior

Cited by 57 publications

References 25 publications

Sexual Consent in Committed Relationships: A Dyadic Study

Sexual Consent in Committed Relationships: A Dyadic Study

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

Understanding How University Students Use Perceptions of Consent, Wantedness, and Pleasure in Labeling Rape

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