Will Educational Materials Reduce Negative Effects of Exposure to Sexual Violence

To study the effects of information designed to dissociate violence from sexuality on attitudes toward sexual violence, we constructed two brief films about the importance of concern for one's sexual partner and about the impact of rape on its victims. Both films were intended to modify mechanisms hypothesized to underlie associations between violence and sexuality by increasing sensitivity toward violent behavior and reducing aggressive tendencies associated with sexual cues. One of these films, or no informational film, was presented before showing one third of each group a commercial film that depicted sexual violence, nonviolent sexuality, or nonviolent, nonsexual material. Compared to the unbriefed group, the briefed groups showed a significant decline in beliefs in rape myths. They also reported greater empathy toward an alleged victim of rape, a greater tendency to find the accused assailant guilty, greater sensitivity to filmed violence against women, and greater physiological-emotional repulsion ...