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The effect of soft-core and hard-core erotica on provoked and unprovoked hostile behavior

Both male and female subjects were provoked or not provoked, exposed to erotic motion pictures that ranged from suggestive to explicitly sexual, or given a control treatment of either a neutral film or a no-communication waiting period, and provided with an opportunity to behave in a hostile manner....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of sex research 1981-11, Vol.17 (4), p.319-343
Main Authors: Sapolsky, Barry S., Zillmann, Dolf
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Both male and female subjects were provoked or not provoked, exposed to erotic motion pictures that ranged from suggestive to explicitly sexual, or given a control treatment of either a neutral film or a no-communication waiting period, and provided with an opportunity to behave in a hostile manner. It was predicted that provoked persons' hostility would be reduced by minimally arousing but maximally pleasant erotica and increased by maximally arousing but minimally pleasant erotica. Regardless of the degree of sexual explicitness, erotica had no appreciable effect on unprovoked males or females. Excitatory reactions to erotica were comparable for both sexes. There were significant sex differences in the hedonic responses to these stimuli, however. Females reported being disturbed to a much greater degree than did males. Males reported positive affective reactions to films depicting coitus, but not to a film depicting precoital behavior. Inexplicit erotica with positive hedonic valence did not reduce hostile reactions in provoked males, nor did explicit erotica with positive valence facilitate such reactions. The hostile behavior of provoked males and females was enhanced, however, by strongly arousing but moderately disturbing erotica. For females, this condition was met by an explicit film of coitus; for males, in contrast, a film of precoital behavior enhanced hostile reactions. A model of erotica effects is proposed in which excitatory and hedonic reactions are jointly considered.
ISSN:0022-4499
1559-8519
DOI:10.1080/00224498109551124