Online pornography and rape myth acceptance: Sexually degrading content, anonymous viewing conditions, and the activation of antisocial attitudes

The primary aim of this study is to address the effects of sexual media content, including explicit and "degrading" elements, on sexist and stereotypical attitudes. A secondary goal is to understand the influence of anonymous viewing conditions within the context of sexual media effects. To assess the impact of these factors, the study employs a between-subjects pretest-posttest experimental design. Two between-subjects factors are: media content (sexually "degrading" material, sexually "non-degrading" material, and non-sexual material) and viewing condition (anonymous and non-anonymous). Dependent variables include benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, rape supportive attitudes, and sexual media choice.; Results show that exposure to sexually degrading content significantly increased participants' levels of hostile sexism and rape supportive attitudes but did not increase benevolent sexism. Exposure to content that was not sexually degrading, on the other hand, did not increase sexist attitudes. There was no significant interaction effect between types of sexual media content and viewing conditions on the activation of antisocial attitudes. Interestingly, anonymous viewing conditions increased levels of hostile sexism. Results also show that participants in anonymous conditions expressed greater willingness to select more sexually intense and thematically varied films than those in non-anonymous conditions.; Taken together, the findings of this study suggest that sexual explicitness alone is not likely to change viewers' sexist attitudes. Combining sexual explicitness with sexually degrading factors, however, is likely to produce hostile thoughts and antipathy towards women. Findings also suggest that the sense of anonymity reduces viewers' hesitation to express antipathy towards women and leads to requests to experience more extreme types of sexual stimuli.; By considering the influence of degrading content and anonymous sexual media use, these results offer insight into two areas: (1) how inconsistent findings from previous research on the effects of sexually explicit material may be explained; and, (2) which factors in the depiction of pornography may have harmful evaluative effects---namely, degrading themes integrated with sexual explicitness. However, this study concludes that while anonymous sexual media use might facilitate antisocial and deviant thoughts in viewers, it should not cause sexually impulsive and disinhibited behaviors.