The Effects of Exposure to Virtual Child Pornography on Viewer Cognitions and Attitudes Toward Deviant Sexual Behavior

First Published February 1, 2008 Research Article

Authors

Indiana University
by this author
,
University of California, Santa Barbara
by this author
First Published Online: February 1, 2008

Assumptions regarding the harmful effects of exposure to virtual child pornography are tested in a laboratory experiment. Based on a lexical decision-making task, participants exposed to sexually explicit depictions of females who appear to be minors (“barely legal” pornography) were faster to recognize sexual words after being primed with neutral depictions of girls compared to participants who were preexposed to adult pornography. Trend analysis showed that participants took longer to recognize sexual words after exposure to neutral depictions of underage females the older the models they saw in the exposure condition. Contrary to predictions, male and female participants exposed to barely legal pornography estimated lower rather than higher prevalence and popularity of barely legal depictions than those in other conditions. Implications of evidence of a child-sex cognitive schema following exposure to barely legal pornography and explanations for the failure to support predictions concerning Web-based barely legal pornography are discussed.

Allen, M. , D'Alessio, D. , & Brezgel, K. (1995). A meta-analysis summarizing the effects of pornography II. Human Communication Research, 22, 258-283.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Allen, M. , Emmers, T. , Gebhardt, L. , & Giery, M.A. (1995). Exposure to pornography and acceptance of rape myths. Journal of Communication, 45(1), 5-25.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002).
Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1965). Influence of model's reinforcement contingencies on the acquisition of imitative responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, 589-595.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Bandura, A. (1971). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1994). A social cognitive theory of mass communication . In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects (pp. 61-90). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Bem, S.L. (1983). Gender schema theory and its implications for child development: Raising genderaschematic children in a gender-schematic society. Signs, 8, 598-616.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects of thoughts on anti- and prosocial influences of media events: A cognitive-neoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 410-427.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: Its causes, consequences, and control . New York: McGraw-Hill.
Google Scholar
Busselle, R.W. (2001). Television exposure, perceived realism, and exemplar accessibility in the social judgment process. Media Psychology , 3, 43-67.
Google Scholar
Busselle, R.W. , & Shrum, L.J. (2000). Media exposure and exemplar accessibility. Unpublished manuscript.
Google Scholar
Cedrus Corporation. (1999). SuperLab Pro (Version 2.0) [Computer software]. San Pedro, CA: Author.
Google Scholar
Check, J.V.P. (1984). The effects of violent and nonviolent pornography (Contract No. 955V, 19200-3-0899). Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Department of Justice.
Google Scholar
Child Pornography Prevention Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2251 (1996).
Google Scholar
Crick, N.R. , & Dodge, K.A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information processing mechanisms in children's adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74-101.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Dodge, K.A. (1986). A social information processing model of social competence in children. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.), The Minnesota symposium on child psychology (pp. 77-125). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Donnerstein, E. , Linz, D. , & Penrod, S. (1987). The question of pornography: Research findings and policy implications. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar
Fazio, R.H. (1990). A practical guide to the use of response latency in social psychological research. In C. Hendrick & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Research methods in personality and social psychology (pp. 74-97). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar
Graham, S. , & Hudley, C. (1994). Attributions of aggressive and nonagressive African-American male early adolescents: A study of construct accessibility. Developmental Psychology, 30, 365-373.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Gunter, B. (2002). Media sex: What are the issues? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Huesmann, L.R. (1988). An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 14, 13-24.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Huesmann, L.R. (1998). The role of social information processing and cognitive schema in the acquisition and maintenance of habitual aggressive behavior. In R. G. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Human aggression: Theories, research, and implications for social policy (pp. 73-109). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Huesmann, L.R. , Moise, J. , & Podolski, C.P. (1997). The effects of media violence on the development of antisocial behavior. In D. Stoff , J. Breiling , & J. Masser (Eds.), Handbook of antisocial behavior (pp. 181-193). New York: John Wiley.
Google Scholar
Jo, E. , & Berkowitz, L. (1994). A priming effect analysis of media influences: An update. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects (pp. 43-60). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Josephson, W.L. (1987). Television violence and children's aggression: Testing and priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 882-890.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Liebold, J.M. , & McConnell, A.R. (2002). Women, sex, hostility, power, and suspicion: Sexually aggressive men's cognitive associations. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Google Scholar
Linz, D. , Adams, S. , & Donnerstein, E. (1989). Physiological desensitization and judgments about female victims of violence. Human Communication Research, 15, 509-522.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Linz, D. , Donnerstein, E. , & Penrod, S. (1988). Long-term exposure to violent and sexually degrading depictions of women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 55, 758-768.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Linz, D. , & Malamuth, N. (1993). Communication concepts 5: Pornography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Linz, D.G. , Donnerstein, E. , & Penrod, S. (1984). The effects of multiple exposures to filmed violence against women. Journal of Communication, 34(3), 130-147.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Malamuth, N.M. , Haber, S. , & Feshbach, S. (1980). Testing hypotheses regarding rape: Exposure to sexual violence, sex differences, and the “normality” of results . Journal of Research in Personality, 14, 121-137.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Manis, M. , Shedler, J. , Jonides, J. , & Nelson, T.E. (1993). Availability heuristic in judgments of set size and frequency occurrence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 448-457.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Meyer, D.E. , & Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90, 227-234.
Google Scholar
Mullin, C.R. , & Linz, D. (1995). Desensitization and resensitization to violence against women: Effects of exposure to sexually violent films on judgments of domestic violence victims. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 449-459.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Neely, J.H. (1976). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Evidence for facilitatory and inhibitory processes. Memory and Cognition, 4, 648-654.
Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI
Neely, J.H. (1977). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading, spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 106, 225-254.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
O'Guinn, T.C. , & Shrum, L.J. (1997). The role of television in the construction of consumer reality. Journal of Consumer Research, 23, 278-294.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Shrum, L.J. (1996). Psychological processes underlying cultivation effects: Further tests of construct accessibility. Human Communication Research, 22, 482-509.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Shrum, L.J. (2002). Media consumption and effects of social reality: Effects and underlying processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 69-95). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Singh, D. , & Young, R. (1995). Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio, breasts and hips: Role in judgments of female attractiveness and desirability in relationships . Ethology and Sociobiology, 16, 483-507.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Slater, M.D. , Rouner, D. , Beauvais, F. , Murphy, K. , Domenech-Rodriquez, M. , & Van Leuven, J. (1996). Adolescent exceptions of underage drinkers in TV beer ads. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 42, 43-56.
Google Scholar
Smith, S.L. , & Donnerstein, E. (1998). Harmful effects of exposure to media violence: Learning of aggression, emotional desensitization, and fear. In R. G. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Human aggression: Theories, research, and implications for social policy (pp. 167-202). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Stevens, J.P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Thornhill, R. , & Palmer, C.T. (2000). A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Google Scholar
Tversky, A. , & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 207-232.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Zillmann, D. (1984). Victimization of women through pornography. Proposal to the National Science Foundation, Bloomington, IN.
Google Scholar

Access content

To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.
  • Access Options

    My Account

    Welcome
    You do not have access to this content.

    Chinese Institutions / 中国用户

    Click the button below for the full-text content

    请点击以下获取该全文

    Institutional Login

    Purchase Content

    24 hours online access to download content

    Added to Cart

    Cart is full

    There is currently no price available for this item in your region.

    Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. Find out about Lean Library here


Purchase

CRX-article-ppv for GBP29.00
CRX-article-ppv for $37.50
Single Issue 24 hour E-access for GBP221.03
Single Issue 24 hour E-access for $264.83