Perceived Realism and Wishful Identification: College Students’ Perceptions of Alcohol Ads and Their Intentions to Sexually Coerce with or Without Using Alcohol
Abstract
Introduction
Sexual coercion is a serious health problem in the United States, and it is the most prevalent form of sexual victimization that occurs on college campuses. The present study aimed to identify factors, such as exposure to objectified women in alcohol advertisements, that may contribute to college students’ intentions to sexually coerce with alcohol use and without alcohol use. The study also investigated the potential effects of gender stereotypes, wishful identification of alcohol ads, perceived realism of alcohol ads, and alcohol expectancies related to sexual enhancement on students’ intentions to coerce.
Method
An online experiment was conducted with 1208 students from a large Northwestern university. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions in which they were exposed to alcohol advertisements that included either highly objectified images of women or low-objectified images of women.
Results
The regression analyses indicate beliefs in gender stereotypes were the most consistent predictor across women and men’s sexually coercive intentions, regardless if alcohol was used. Wishful identification with models in alcohol advertisements was positively associated with intentions to coerce, and perceived realism of alcohol ads was negatively associated with intentions to coerce.
For college men’s intentions to sexually coerce using alcohol, there were significant interaction effects between exposure to highly objectified advertisements and gender stereotypes.
For women’s intentions to sexually coerce using alcohol, the interaction between wishful identification and perceived realism was significant.
Conclusion
Education efforts are needed to deal with the endorsement of gender stereotypes on college campuses. Media literacy may help college students critically evaluate portrayals of women in the media, and thus, in turn, may help lower intentions to sexually coerce.
Research in context
In this study, 1208 college students were shown alcohol advertisements to analyze how it affected their intentions to sexually coerce. One group of participants were shown real advertisements featuring highly objectified women such as models wearing little or no clothing. The other group was shown ads that were changed to lessen the objectification, such as adding a dress to a model who appeared in the original ad in a bikini.
The participants were asked questions about their perceptions of the ads, their beliefs in gender stereotypes, sex-related alcohol expectancies and their own sexual coercion intentions with or without alcohol.
This study found:
- Both young men and women who expressed strong beliefs in gender stereotypes were more likely to sexually coerce.
- Young men’s intention to sexually coerce was strongly connected to viewing alcohol ads featuring highly objectified female models and gender stereotypes.
- Women who wanted to be like the female models in the alcohol advertisements were more likely to report intentions to sexually coerce without even using alcohol.
- Perceived realism about alcohol advertisements was negatively associated with sexual coercion.
Sexual coercion covers a range of negative and illegal behaviors including lying, verbally pressuring someone, and influencing potential partners with alcohol to have sex. Some of the questions on the study asked participants whether they would pretend to like someone just to have sex with them or if they would have sex with someone even if they felt their partner would feel used afterward.
What the study found was that the alcohol advertisements had a negative effect on participants who had perceptions such as belief in gender stereotypes and women’s wishful identification with the depicted models (wanting to be like the models.)
The authors suggest actions that can reduce the problem of sexual coercion including:
- Starting prevention programs that debunk gender stereotypes when kids are young.
- Increasing critical awareness about advertisements from the elementary level. By doing so, when kids reach adolescence and young adulthood they can apply those tools for products that are harmful.
