Use of a Bogus Pipeline to Detect Men’s Underreporting of Sexually Aggressive Behavior

Abstract

Researchers rely on men’s self-reports of sexually aggressive behavior to identify the prevalence and correlates of men’s perpetration (i.e., their use of verbal or physical coercion to obtain sex from a nonconsenting partner). However, results from research based on men’s self-reported sexual perpetration are suspect because men may intentionally conceal their sexually aggressive behavior. The current study used a Bogus Pipeline (BPL) methodology to determine whether young, community men ( N = 93) intentionally underreport their use of sexually aggressive strategies on two self-report measures of perpetration. Compared with men in a Standard Testing (ST) condition, men in an experimental BPL condition—who believed that the honesty of their responses was being monitored—had 6.5 times greater odds of endorsing the use of illegal sexual assault strategies on a widely used measure. Indeed, over a third of men in the BPL condition admitted to using such strategies. However, there was no significant difference in men’s reports of verbally coercive strategies in the BPL versus the ST condition on the same measure. There were also no significant differences in reporting on the other, less commonly used measure of sexual aggression as a function of condition. Based on these preliminary findings, men’s use of sexual assault strategies may be far more common than is suggested by most self-report studies. Self-reports of verbal coercion, however, may be more trustworthy.