The effects of alcohol, executive cognitive function, individual differences, and contextual variables on college men's perceptions of unwanted sexual advances

Sexual assault among acquaintances is a major problem on U.S. college campuses. Alcohol consumption is consistently implicated in its perpetration. Researchers have sought to determine what properties of alcohol produce the association with sexual assault: expectancy, pharmacology or both. "Alcohol myopia," a cognitive disruption model whereby alcohol is theorized to facilitate sexual assault by pharmacologically narrowing a drinker's attention to instigatory versus inhibitory environmental and internal cues. The mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced cognitive disruption related to sexual assault are not well understood. One mechanism through which alcohol facilitates non-sexual physical aggression in the laboratory is via physiological impairment of executive cognitive functioning (ECF). A study was conducted to investigate the role of ECF in mediating differences between intoxicated and sober college men's judgments of sexual assault and their self-reported likelihood to pursue sexual contact in the face of a woman's refusals. In addition to alcohol consumption, the two contextual variables thought to affect men's responses were varied: alcohol consumption on the part of the female character and prior consensual sexual intercourse in a vignette depicting unwanted sexual advances. Several individual difference variables were also measured. Findings indicated that executive cognitive functioning mediated alcohol induced changes in men's perceptions of a key variable in the study. Additionally, the pharmacological effects of alcohol on men's perceptions were found to follow a pattern that is generally consistent with alcohol myopia theory. Contrary to predictions, there were very few interactions among manipulated variables and individual difference variables.