Sexual Attitudes Moderate the Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Women’s Risk Judgments

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of alcohol intoxication, sexual attitudes, and sexual victimization history on the cognitive processes underlying undergraduate women's risk judgments. Participants were 116 unmarried, undergraduate women between the ages of 21 and 29. The sample was diverse ethnically and composed primarily of heterosexual women. Stimuli were written vignettes describing social situations that varied on dimensions of sexual victimization risk and potential impact on women's popularity. Participants were assigned randomly to an alcohol or a no-alcohol condition, and completed an explicit classification task in which they rated how risky each situation was in terms of their having an unwanted sexual experience. They then completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and the Sociosexuality Scale (SS); SES responses were used to quantify the severity of victimization experiences, and SS responses were used to measure endorsement of positive attitudes toward casual, impersonal sex. Although there was no main effect for condition, higher sociosexuality predicted use of higher thresholds for judging situations as risky. Importantly, sociosexuality interacted with condition such that higher sociosexuality predicted lower sensitivity to risk information in the alcohol condition but not in the no-alcohol condition. More severe victimization history predicted increased use of popularity impactwhen judging risk. This study emphasizes the importance of identifying specific cognitive processes affected by alcohol that may explain why women have difficulty processing contextual cues signaling risk in social situations. It demonstrates also the relevance of examining individual difference factors that may exacerbate the relationship between intoxication and cognitive processing of risk-relevant information.

Latent Profile Analysis of Alcohol Consumption and Sexual Attitudes Among College Women: Associations With Sexual Victimization Risk

“…In the same study, lower sociosexuality women relied on risk cues to a similar degree, regardless of whether they received alcohol or no alcohol (Yeater et al, 2015). Thus, these women, when drinking, may rely more heavily on risk cues, and when combined with lower sociosexuality, may be less likely to enter or remain in situations that are at high risk of victimization, thereby reducing their risk.…”

“…For instance, higher sociosexuality women relied less on risk-relevant information when making explicit judgments of victimization risk when under the influence of alcohol. However, when in a no-alcohol condition, higher sociosexuality women, as compared with lower sociosexuality women, demonstrated somewhat higher reliance on the same information (Yeater et al, 2015). This makes theoretical sense, as women higher in sociosexuality would likely have greater experience with situations involving alcohol use and sexual behavior, thereby enhancing these women’s accuracy in detecting risk cues.…”

“…In addition, in a path analytic study exploring relationships among ethnicity, sexual attitudes, number of lifetime sexual partners, child sexual abuse, and severity of adolescent/adult sexual assault, European American women, as compared with Hispanic women, reported more severe adolescent/adult victimization, which was explained by higher sociosexuality and more lifetime sexual partners (Rinehart, Yeater, Musci, Letourneau, & Lenberg, 2014). In a recent alcohol challenge study (Yeater, Treat, Viken, & Lenberg, 2015), higher sociosexuality was associated with higher thresholds for judging social situations as risky (i.e., high sociosexuality women required more evidence of risk prior to making a high-risk classification). Sociosexuality also interacted with condition (i.e., alcohol vs. no alcohol), such that higher sociosexuality was associated with lower sensitivity to risk information when making explicit risk judgments in the alcohol condition but not in the no-alcohol condition.…”

Uma Revisão Integrativa da Literatura sobre os Erros de Percepção Sexual

“…As variáveis contextuais mais relacionadas com o interesse e o erro de percepção são o álcool, as roupas utilizadas pelo alvo do interesse, as atitudes sexuais e a intenção atribuída a elas e as estratégias de acasalamento do ponto de vista evolutivo (Farris et al, 2008;Treat & Viken, 2018). Algumas pesquisas focaram exclusivamente no consumo de álcool como a de Yeater et al (2015) constatando que, em mulheres mais desinibidas e com maior número de parceiros sexuais, a presença de álcool foi associada significativamente à escolha de resposta mais aquiescentes às situações sexuais. No entanto, para as mulheres com baixa desinibição e aquelas com menor número de parceiros sexuais, a presença ou ausência de álcool não influenciou significativamente suas escolhas de respostas.…”

Guest Editor’s Introduction

“…Although sexual victimization ultimately must be seen as the responsibility of the aggressor, the relative paucity of effective interventions for reducing men’s sexually aggressive behavior suggests the importance of research that focuses on augmenting women’s ability to reduce their own risk of victimization, especially insofar as helping women to understand their own drinking behavior and increase their SV risk perception (Gidycz, McNamara, & Edwards, 2006) and resistance (Ullman, 2014), may be empowering. A number of studies have examined a range of variables linked to women’s risk of SV, including victims’ difficulty in recognizing risk (Soler-Baillo, Marx, & Sloan, 2005; Yeater, Treat, Viken, & McFall, 2010), victims’ popularity concerns (Yeater, Treat, Viken, & Lenberg, 2015), and difficulties in choosing effective responses to risky situations (Yeater & Viken, 2010; Yeater, McFall, & Viken, 2011).…”