Emerging adult college students (77 men, 82 women) in the U.S. evaluated consent and the acceptability of a sexual act in hypothetical scenarios which varied the response of the protagonist/victim, the length of the relationship and the gender of the protagonist. Judgments of the acceptability of sexual acts were strongly associated with judgments of consent. Judgments of consent and the acceptability, responsibility for and deserved-punishment for the sexual act differed depending on the victim's responses and relationships lengths. Compared to women, men judged sex after the freezing response to be more acceptable, and the perpetrator to be less responsible and less punish-worthy. In addition, men were less likely than women to label responses where the victim froze as rape. No differences were found between participants in their first years of college compared to their last years of college.

One hundred and fifty-nine emerging adults (77 men, 82 women) completed an online survey evaluating consent and the acceptability of a sexual act in hypothetical scenarios which varied the response of the protagonist/victim and the length of the relationship. Judgments of the acceptability of sexual acts were strongly associated with judgments of consent. Judgments of consent and the acceptability, responsibility for and deserved-punishment for the sexual act differed depending on the victim responses and relationships lengths. Gender differences were most frequent in the conditions where the victim responded to sexual advances by freezing. Compared to women, men judged the freezing response to be more acceptable, and the perpetrator to be less responsible and less punish-worthy. In addition, men were less likely than women to label responses where the victim froze as rape, though they did indicate they were wrong.

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To investigate whether adolescents approve of disobedience or lying in response to rules that restrict behavior based on gender, 89 younger (Mage = 11.74), older (Mage = 16.67) adolescents and emerging adults (Mage = 19.97) judged vignettes where a child prefers an activity, but the child’s parents indicate that they are not allowed to participate because the activity is (1) “not for boys,” (2) “not for girls,” or (3) a schedule-related concern. Participants rated it more acceptable to disobey parental rules or lie to parents about participation in the activity when the rules were based on gender compared to when the rules were gender-neutral. Younger adolescents were less likely to endorse disobeying and lying than older adolescents and emerging adults. Controlling for age, principled endorsement of lying as resistance predicted endorsement of both lying and disobedience in specific vignettes.