Why Do Some Men Misperceive Women's Sexual Intentions More Frequently Than Others Do? An Application of the Confluence Model

Abstract

Although many researchers have documented men's tendency to misperceive women's friendliness as a sign of sexual interest, few have examined individual differences in men's attitudes and past experiences that might predict their likelihood of making these types of misjudgments. We applied an expanded version of Malamuth, Sockloskie, Koss, and Tanaka's (1991) Confluence model to predict frequency of misperception of women's sexual intent with a sample of 356 male college students. Using structural equation modeling, hostile masculinity, impersonal sex, and drinking in dating and sexual situations predicted men's frequency of misperception. Furthermore, the more risk factors men possessed, the more times they misperceived women's sexual intentions. Suggestions are made for theory development and future research incorporating situational as well as personality measures in longitudinal studies.Keywords sexual perception; misperception of sexual intent; sexual assault; Confluence model; alcohol Both women and men frequently report that their sexual intentions have been misperceived by someone of the opposite sex, although substantially more women than men report that their level of sexual interest was overperceived (Abbey, 1987;Haselton, 2003;Koss & Oros, 1982). For example, Koss and Oros (1982) found that 70% of the female and 53% of the male college students in their survey reported that the level of sexual intimacy they desired from a member of the opposite sex had been misperceived at least once. Similarly, Abbey (1987, Study 1) found that 72% of college women and 60% of college men reported that Correspondence regarding this manuscript should be sent to Angela J. Jacques-Tiura, Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, 5057 Woodward, Detroit, MI 48202; ajacques@wayne.edu. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript someone of the opposite sex had misperceived their friendliness as a sexual come-on. Among those students who had been misperceived, the average number of misperceptions was 4.8. These findings are typically explained in terms of the ambiguous meaning of many nonverbal and verbal cues (P. A. Anderson, 1985;Fichten, Tagalakis, Judd, Wright, & Amsel, 1992;Kowalski, 1993). People may be signaling sexual interest when they smile, stand close, give a compliment, or pat someone of the opposite sex on the arm; however, they also may be signaling friendship or attention. The multiple meanings associated with flirtatious cues contribute to frequent misunderstandings, particularly early in an interaction (Henningsen, 2004;Koeppel, Montagne-Miller, O'Hair, & Cody, 1993).Although most misperceptions of sexual intent are quickly resolved, they have been linked to men's perpetration of sexual assault and sexual harassment (Abbey, 1987;Abbey, McAuslan, & Ross, 1998;Stockdale, 1993). The primary purpose of this article is to determine the extent to which the Confluence model (Malamuth, Sockloskie, Koss, & Tanaka, 1991), which has been used to predict colle...

The Role of Alcohol Use During Sexual Situations in the Relationship Between Sexual Revictimization and Women’s Intentions to Engage in Unprotected Sex

“…These two measures were not significantly skewed. Responses to these two items were multiplied to form an index of alcohol consumption in sexual situations ( M = 6.07; SD = 4.26) that ranged from 0 to 20 (Jacques-Tiura, Abbey, Parkhill, & Zawacki, 2007; Parkhill & Abbey, 2008). …”

Individual and Situational Influences on Men’s Responses to Dating and Social Situations

“…The following measures were used: (a) the Sexual Dominance Scale (Nelson, 1979); (b) the Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale (Burt, 1980); (c) the Hostility Toward Women Scale (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995); and (d) a three-item measure of impersonal sex (i.e., frequency of spontaneous arousal, masturbation, and infidelity; Malamuth et al, 1995). Previous research (e.g., Jacques-Tiura, Abbey, Parkhill, & Zawacki, 2007) indicated a moderate to high correlation between each of these measures (r = .48-.82); thus the sum of standardized values for each scale (a = .82) was used as an index of "rape-supportive attitudes." Furthermore, the combination of these variables is consistent with previous research (i.e., Vega & Malamuth, 2007).…”

The Role of Sexual Arousal and Overperception of Sexual Intent Within the Decision to Engage in Sexual Coercion

“…Finally, a number of studies have examined various contextual factors that can influence inaccurate perception of sexual intent, including the type of clothing women wear (Abbey, Cozzarelli, McLaughlin, & Harnish, 1987;Koukounas & Letch, 2001), certain dating behaviors (e.g., going to the man's residence; Koukounas & Letch, 2001;Muehlenhard, 1988), and the male's alcohol consumption (Abbey, Ross, McDuffie, & McAuslan, 1996;Abbey et al, 2009;Jacques-Tiura et al, 2007).…”