Examining Sex Differences in Altering Attitudes About Rape: A Test of the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Abstract

This intervention sought to improve first‐year college students' attitudes about rape. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) was used to examine men and women's attitude change processes. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to examine how men and women construed rape prevention messages. Results indicated numerous sex differences in the ways in which men and women experienced and changed during and after the rape prevention intervention. Women seemed to use more central‐route attitude change processes and showed more lasting change from the intervention at 2‐month follow‐up, whereas men seemed to attend more to peripheral cues of the speaker and demonstrated more transient attitude change.

Sexual Harassment Mythology: Definition, Conceptualization, and Measurement

“…The magnitude and permanency of our training effects therefore warrant further study. This is especially true given findings in the literature on rape prevention education, where immediate training effects diminish (Frazier et al 1994;Heppner et al 1995b) or even reverse (Heppner et al 1995a) after a period of weeks. Note, however, that all three of the prior studies of harassment training effects cited above (Beauvais 1986;Magley et al 1997;Maurizio and Rogers 1992) tested the effect of training only on attitudes toward the seriousness of sexual harassment as a social problem.…”

Sexual Assault Prevention Programs for College Men: An Exploratory Evaluation of the Men Against Violence Model

“…The guided inquiry section of the evaluation, based on the method and items used by Heppner et al (1995), assessed participants' reactions to specific program components. Fraternity men responded to the following open-ended questions: (a) "What was the most important thing you learned about the legal definitions of rape?"…”

“…As described by Heppner et al (1995), thought listing is a social psychology technique used to assess and categorize participants' thoughts following their exposure to a stimulus. To assess global reactions to the program, participants were asked to list their immediate reactions to the presentation by writing "the first thought that comes to mind on the first line, the second thought on the second line, and the third thought on the third line.…”

The Effect of Sport Commentator Framing on Viewer Attitudes

“…Typically though, these results are found only when participants have low involvement with the message (Brunel and Nelson 2003). Others have discovered that gender plays a role in cognitive processing when the subject is gender related and emotionally charged (e.g., rape) (Heppner et al 1995), but this too would suggest that involvement is the key variable in the determination of framing effects. Given the paucity of literature in this area, we propose a second research question Research Question 2 After controlling for involvement, will there be an interaction between gender and type of commentary (positive versus negative) on the participants' attitudes toward female athletes': (a) athletic ability; (b) respectability; (c) aggressiveness; (d) femininity, and (e) participants' general attitude toward female athletes?…”