Deakin University. Australia: With office
Christmas party season in full swing a new Deakin University study provides a
timely reminder of the role alcohol plays in unwanted sexual advances.
According to
the research simply sitting next to a beer is enough for a woman to be
considered sexually available. The results have implications for
understanding how alcohol might contribute to sexual assault.
Deakin School of Psychology researchers examined whether the mere presence of alcohol
could be used as a sexual cue. They
found that men were more likely to perceive a woman sitting alongside a bottle
of alcohol, not even actually drinking it, as being seductive, promiscuous or
flirtatious.
"The role
alcohol plays in the processing of sexual information, and sexual harm, is
complex," said Dr Eric Koukounas, the lead researcher on the study.
"We know
from previous studies that people who drink alcohol are perceived to be more
sexually available than those who abstain, and that men see women who are
drinking as more likely to consent to sex. Approximately half of all sexual
assaults are also associated with either the perpetrator and/or the victim
having consumed alcohol.
"While
research is pointing to exposure to alcohol as playing a significant role in
how sexual information is processed, relatively little investigation has been
made into how the simple presence of alcohol placement influences perceptions
or behaviour."
The study
involved 147 sexually experienced men and women who were shown a video of a
social interaction between a man and woman depicted with a bottle of water or
alcohol. The participants were asked to rate the woman on sexual intent ie
seductiveness, promiscuity and flirtatiousness.
"The study didn't
just find that it was men finding women attractive, or that it was just that
alcohol made people in general more attractive, it revealed that men
perceived greater sexual intent in the woman in the video when depicted with
the alcohol than with the bottle of water," said study co-investigator
Associate Professor Peter Miller.
"These findings
have implications for
understanding how alcohol might contribute to sexual assault
and also point
to the need for further
research on the relationship between how alcohol
advertising might reinforce negative
sexual beliefs toward women.
"That the
mere imagery of alcohol in a social context can influence sexual beliefs toward
women points to a need to explore whether many of the strategies used by media
and advertising organisations are in fact perpetuating conditions in which men
misperceive integral cues and whether this leads to potential sexual violence."
The study, 'The
effect of gender and alcohol placement in the processing of sexual intent',
is published in the online, early view section of the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.