Gender Differences in the Effect of Visual Sexual Stimulation on the Perceived Covariation Between Freedom and Responsibility

The authors replicated and extended a lest of Epsteinʹs cognitive-experien­tial self-theory (CEST; S. Epstein. 1973, 1980. 1985, 1994, 2003) regarding subjective estimates of the relationship between freedom and responsibility. CEST predicts that information in the form of sexually provocative images is likely to be processed by the experiential system. The authorsʹ hypothesis was that such experiential processing would cause an increase in the likelihood of participants endorsing as true a statement that pro-posed a negative correlation between freedom and responsibility. University students (N = 97) in introductory psychology classes viewed 25 images of either men or women in provocative clothing, or a control consisting of academic journal covers, after which they responded to 24 statements proposing either a positive, negative, or noncontingent rela­tionship between freedom and responsibility. Judgments were analyzed according to per­ceiver gender and target gender, as well as the framing of the proposition and its contin­gency category. The hypothesis was supported for the men and to a lesser extent for the women. Although priming the experiential system by exposing participants to sexually provocative images did not change endorsement rates of positive contingencies, it did lead to an increase in the likelihood of simultaneously endorsing negative contingencies.