Men’s Perception of Women’s Passive Sexual Responses Impacts Their Decision-Making During Simulated Hookups

Abstract

A woman’s passive response to a sexual advance can be misconstrued by men as signaling consent when it does not. Characterological factors and situational variances may further shape how men perceive a woman’s passive response and impact their sexual decisions during hookups, leading to unwanted sexual experiences for the partner. A sample of men (n = 357) completed first-person factorial vignettes depicting a sexual hookup in which a woman reacts to their partner’s sexual advance passively, either with or without signs of tension. Men were asked to rate their perceptions of consent and their hypothetical likelihood of engaging in different sexual behaviors, and completed assessments that were used to extract hostile masculinity and impersonal sexual orientation factors. Consent perceptions had strong effects on men’s sexual decision-making and mediated situational influences (e.g., passive response type), impersonal sexual orientation, and, to some extent, hostile masculinity; and hostile masculinity had strong direct effects on sexual decision-making irrespective of consent perceptions. Men can discriminate between passive responses and appear to calibrate their decision-making according to their perceptions of consent. Some men, however, are prone to perceive consent in passive responding irrespective of the situation, with others inclined to continue or advance intimacy without considering the woman’s level of consent.