Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!caip!princeton!allegra!ulysses!bellcore!whuxcc!lcuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mtuxo!mtune!mtunf!mtx5c!mtx5d!mtx5a!mat From: mat@mtx5a.UUCP (m.terribile) Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.legal,net.singles Subject: Re: Re: Attorney General's Commission on Pornography Message-ID: <1529@mtx5a.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Sep-86 16:44:30 EDT Article-I.D.: mtx5a.1529 Posted: Fri Sep 12 16:44:30 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Sep-86 21:04:49 EDT References: <777@mtund.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Middletown, NJ 07748-4801. Lines: 146 Xref: mnetor talk.politics.misc:75 net.legal:3541 net.singles:10280 > > ... the studies which showed an increased willingness to cause another > > person pain or to disregard the sexual rights of women after the subjects > > had viewed a couple hours of such material suggest that these things may > > happen, and that at the very least we should fund further studies ... > > ... $500 000 is just not enough to answer these questions properly. > > The study Mark refers to was conducted like this: Some male college > students are given an attitude survey. They are then crowded into a > small, darkened room, and made to view a piece of violent pornography on > a flickering movie projector. They are then given the attitude survey > again, and, presto, they appear more willing to disregard the sexual > rights of women. How come? You are saying first that there was one study (actually, experiment) and second that it was not properly controlled, right? You haven't read the Report. From Page 980, Are there differences in effects from exposure to violent versus non-violent sexually explicit material? An early study (Malmuth, Reisin, and Spinner, 1979) had male and female subjects exposed to one of the above stimuli or to a neutral one. The materials presented were pictures from Playboy or Penthouse magazines for the sexual exposures and from National Geographic for the neutral exposure. Sexually violent depictions included pictures of rape or sadomasochism whereas the sexually nonviolent material had no aggressive elements. After viewing the material, subjects filled out a mood checklist. This was followed ten minutes later by an assessment of reactions to rape after the subjects had viewed a videotaped interview with an actual rape victim as well as an assessment several days later in an ostensibly different study. Both types of stimuli were found to reduce the extent to which subjects perceived that pornography may have detrimental effects but neither one affected reactions to rape. So far, so good, but this is a case where the victim was interviewed, and allowed to tell her side without interference. The Report continues: Correlational data, on the other hand, showed that sexual arousal to the sexually violent depictions were significantly related with a self-reported possiblity of engaging in rape. Another study (Malamut, Haber, and Feshbach, 1980) examined the effects of written depictions of a sexual interaction based on a feature from Penthouse magazine and modified to create a violent and nonviolent version for male and female subjects. In this study, males who had been exposed to the sexually violent depiction (sadomasochism) perceived more favorably a rape depiction that was presented to subjects subsequently. Subjects were found to believe that a higher percentage of men would rape if they knew they would not be punished and that many women would enjoy being victmized. Finaly, of the fifty-three male subjects, seventeen percent said they personally would be likely to act as the rapist under similar conditions. Fifty-three percent of these males responded similarly when asked the same question if assured they would not be caught. In order to draw out the various dimensions in the portrayals of sexual violence which might explain the inhibition of sexual responsiveness, Malamuth, Heim, and Feshbach (1980) conducted two experiments on male and female students. The first replicated earlier findings that normal subjects seem to be less aroused by sexual violence than by ``nonviolent erotica.'' A second experiment manipulated reactions of the rape victim with one version showing her as experiencing an involuntary orgams and no pain. The second version had her experiencing an orgasm with pain. Both male and female subjects were aroused to these depictions, with femals subjects more aroused by the orasm with no pain version while the males were more aroused by the orgasm with pain stimulus. The authors postulated in this case that under certani conditions, rape depictions can be arousing, particularly when the rape victim is shown experiencing an orgams during the assault. According to the authors, subjects may have reinterpreted the evens preceding the depiction of the arousal so that the rape is now viewed as one that is less coercive and less guilt-inducing. Three additional studies (Malamuth and Check, 1980a; 1980b; 1983) provide further evidence that victim reactons have a significant impact on sexual arousal and behavioral intentions. Results from one of these studies showed that both make and femal subjects exhibited higher arousal levels when portrayals showed an aroused female, regardless of whether the contect was a rape or mutually consenting situation. The second study (Malamuth and Check, 1980a) similarly showed that male subjects had higher penile tumenescence scores when viewing a victim-aroused rape portrayal compared to a portrayal showing victim abhorrence. Significant correlations were also obtained between the reported possibility of engaging in similar behavior, sexual arousal to rape depictions, and callous attitudes toward rape. The effect of sexually violent on attitudes has also been demonstrated with male and female subjects reporting a greater acceptance of rape myths agter exposure to such material (Malamuth and Check, 1980a; Malamuth, Haber and Feshbach, 1980) In an attempt to approximate a ``real world'' situation, Malamuth and Check (1981) had male and female subjects view full-length features as part of a campus cinema showing. The films --*Swept Away* and *The Getaway*-- represented sexually violent fims wheras control subjects viewed a non-violent feature film. Dependent measures were obtained after a week in a questionaire presented as a separate sexual attitudes survey. These measures included rape myth acceptance measures, measures on the sexual beliefs, measures on the acceptance of interpersonal violence as well on adversarial sexual beliefs, measures developed by Burt (1980). Results showed that exposure to sexual violence increased male subjects acceptance of interpersonal violence against women. A similar trend, though statistically nonsignificant, was found for the acceptance of rape myths. There were nonsignificant tendencies for females in the opposite directions. In addition to the advantage of external validity from the field experiment, the problem of demand characteristics in some laboratory situations is quite effectively dealt with in this study. > darkness, flickering lights, depiction of violence. In the light of > what we know about human behavior, pornography was not really > necessary to produce the reported result. In all probability, Buggs > Bunny cartoons would have worked equally well. The obvious follow up ... > which in fact was never done, leading to certain obvious conclusions about > the scientific motivation of the investigators) is to eliminate crowding, > darkness, and flicker, and then compare the effects of a non-violent > sex video with those of a Buggs Bunny cartoon of equal duration. Anyone > care to bet on the result? > Adam Reed (mtund!adam) Given the fact that controlled studies *were* done (not by the Commission, which had not the wherewithall to fund them), with a reasonable attempt to eliminate the effects which you describe, your ``obvious conclusions about the scientific motives of the investigators'' may fairly be regarded as unsubstantiated and unreliable. Whatever motives you ascribe to Edwin Meese, to Ronald Reagan, or to anyone else in or around the current Administrations (which obvious conclusions we may accept or disregard), the people who put together this Report attempted to put together a survey of testimony and research that would at least stand basic examination. If they came into the project with certain experiences in the field of pornography, organized crime, or sexual exploitation, they at least attempted to document what they claimed. Can you do as well? -- from Mole End Mark Terribile (scrape .. dig ) mtx5b!mat (Please mail to mtx5b!mat, NOT mtx5a! mat, or to mtx5a!mtx5b!mat) (mtx5b!mole-end!mat will also reach me) ,.. .,, ,,, ..,***_*.