Can there be positive effects of participation in pornography experiments?

Abstract

This two-phase experiment was conducted in response to recent ethical concerns about the possible antisocial effects of exposing research subjects to pornographic rape portrayals. In Phase 1, subjects were randomly assigned to read either an "acquaintance" rape depiction, a "stranger" rape depiction, or to read control materials. Subjects who read the rape depictions were then given a rape debriefing. This debriefing included a communication about the undesirable desensitizing effects of pairing sexual violence with other highly explicit and pleasing sexual stimuli. It was also designed to dispel a number of myths about rape. Half of the subjects who read the control materials were also given the rape debriefing, whereas the other half were given a control debriefing. This design enabled the assessment of the independent and interactive effects of the rape depictions and of the rape debriefing (although ethical considerations did not enable the use of a fully crossed factorial design). In Phase 2, subjects were presented with a number of newspaper articles (in which a newspaper report of a rape was embedded) and asked to give their opinions. The results indicated that the rape debriefing generally increased subjects' perceptions of pornography as a cause of rape. Subjects in the rape debriefing conditions also gave the rapist in the newspaper report a higher sentence, and saw the rape victim as less responsible, than did subjects in the control conditions. This latter effect, however, only occurred under conditions where subjects had earlier been exposed to an example of a rape depiction which was relevant to both the rape myths discussed in the rape debriefing and the newspaper report of the rape. These data suggest that participation in pornography experiments employing pornographic rape depictions can have an educational impact on subjects' postexperimental attitudes, if the debriefing is appropriately constructed to dispel any rape myths that may be portrayed in the rape depictions.