Understanding the link between men’s alcohol use and sexual violence perpetration: The mediating role of sexual objectification.

Abstract

Heavy drinking and sexual violence among college students represent serious societal and personal issues. Alcohol use on college campuses is high with more than 80% of college students drinking alcohol (Engs, Diebold, & Hansen, 1996) and 45% of college students reporting binge drinking in the past two weeks (Hingson, Zha, & Weitzman, 2009). Furthermore, 19% of college students meet the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, 2002). At the same time, sexual violence on college campuses is remarkably common. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2010) define sexual violence as "any sexual act that is perpetrated against someone's will." Whereas 11% percent of women indicate experiencing forced sex at some point in their lives and 3% of women report experiencing unwanted sexual activity in the past year (Basile, Chen, Black, & Saltzman, 2007), 20%-25% of women report experiencing an attempted or completed rape during their college careers (Fisher, Daigle, Cullen, & Turner, 2003). Corresponding to college women's reported experiences with sexual violence from men, 25% of college men report some involvement with sexual aggression in

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holder: An Initial Investigation of the Effects of Alcohol, Attractiveness, Warmth, and Competence on the Objectifying Gaze in Men

“…Alcohol's myopic effects, however, may further inhibit the perceiver's ability to draw his attention away from women's sexually salient body parts. In support of this possibility, Gervais et al (2014) found significant associations between alcohol use and objectification, but this finding was correlational and does not allow for causal inferences. Furthermore, Gervais et al relied upon self-report measures whereas alcohol myopia theory focuses specifically on the physiological effects of alcohol and related attention mechanisms, which are difficult to assess with retrospective self-reports.…”

“…Despite theorizing about the importance of the objectifying gaze (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997), self-reports from women experiencing the gaze (Kozee et al 2007), and self-reports of men perpetrating the gaze (Gervais et al 2014), surprisingly little research has examined which factors affect this objectionable behavior. The only known published studies on the objectifying gaze using behavioral measures to date suggest that as focus on appearance increases, the objectifying gaze also increases (Gervais et al 2013).…”

“…Much less is known about specific contextual, perpetrator, or recipient variables that facilitate or attenuate the objectifying gaze. Further, despite anecdotal accounts that alcohol increases objectification, only one known study has examined this link empirically (Gervais et al 2014) and the results from that study were based on self-reports.…”

“…Integrating alcohol myopia theory with objectification theory, Gervais et al (2014) suggested that alcohol use may cause more objectification perpetration due to the narrowing of the perceptual field that follows from intoxication. Specifically, intoxicated individuals have fewer cognitive resources to process the cues in their environment; more salient, instigating cues tend to capture attention whereas less salient, inhibiting cues receive less attention.…”

“…Objectifying gazes indicate to women they are being reduced to their body parts for the pleasure of the viewer, resulting in myriad adverse outcomes (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997). Environments in which alcohol is present are ripe with opportunities for objectifying gazes, as indicated in the media (e.g., Jamie Foxx's song Blame It) and through empirical examinations (Gervais et al 2014). Importantly, adopting objectifying gazes toward women leads perceivers to dehumanize women , potentially laying the foundation for many negative consequences such as sexual violence (Rudman and Mescher 2012) and workplace gender discrimination (Rudman and Borgida 1995).…”