Abstract
Previous work that compared male and femalereports of women's heterosexual initiation andaggression is replicated. It was hypothesized that men'sreports of women's sexual initiation and aggressionwould be significantly greater than women'sself-report of sexual initiation and aggression in themost recent sample. Of the 24 questionnaire items, 12 ofthe 17 specifically designed to assess sexual initiation or aggression demonstrated significantreporting differences. For every questionnaire item,except “mutually consenting contact,” menreported women initiating sexual contact more often thanwomen self-reported. In addition, comparisons were made to determinethe level of agreement between the results of this studyand a previous study in which the same comparisons weremade with a different sample. It was hypothesized that the identical questionnaire items woulddemonstrate significant gender-based reportingdifferences in both samples. This hypothesis was mostlysupported with 11 items showing a significant difference in both samples. In both samples, malesreported receiving female initiation and aggression morefrequently than females reported giving. Logisticregression results supported a difference in perception of women's sexual initiation based on gender ofrespondent. In both samples men see women's initiationas less conforming to traditional social norms for womenand more aggressive than women do. Gender role expectations and social desirability mayinfluence male and female perceptions of femaleheterosexual initiation and aggression in a way thatcontributes to significant differences inreporting.
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Anderson, P.B., Sorensen, W. Male and Female Differences in Reports of Women's Heterosexual Initiation and Aggression. Arch Sex Behav 28, 243–253 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018736326344
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018736326344