College Students ’ Perceptions of Ambiguous Hook-ups Involving Alcohol Intoxication

AbstractAlcohol intoxication is a prevalent feature of university life and campus sexual assault cases. While previous research has examined how students perceive obvious cases of assault, less is known about how students evaluate more ambiguous sexual scenarios —such as those including two intoxicated individuals. In three survey experiments with college students (N = 990), we examined how manipulating the intoxication (sober vs. drunk) of a man accused of assault (the respondent) influenced perceptions of a hook-up scenario involving an intoxicated woman. Although university policies indicate that respondent intoxication should not influence evaluations o f these scenarios, we hypothesized that students would be influenced by cues of respondent intoxication when making judgments of the hook-up and the individuals involved. Students reported that the hook-up was a sexual assault more often when the respondent was sober compared to when he was drunk, a nd they found sober respondents more responsible for the encounter than drunk respondents. Although effect sizes fluctuated across studies, an internal meta-analysis found evidence of significant (but modest) aggregate effects. Furthermore, perceptions of the respondent’s agency mediated the effec ts of intoxication on perceptions of respondent responsibility (Studies 2& 3). We also manipulated whether the respondent should have reasonably known the complainant was drunk (Studies 1& 2) and whether the complainan...

Source: Sex Roles - October 1, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research