The Impact of Social Issue Television Programming on Attitudes Toward Rape

The Impact of Social Issue Television Programming on Attitudes Toward Rape

BARBARA J. WILSON DANIEL LINZ EDWARD DONNERSTEIN University of California, Santa Barbara HORST STIPP National Broadcasting Company

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of a television movie about acquaintance rape on subsequent attitudes about rape. To maximize external validity, a nationally representative sample of 1,038 ma& and female adultsfrom three agegroups was selected to participate in the study. These participants were then randomly assigned to view or not view the movie over a clwed-circuit channel, prior to the network broadcast of the film. Afterward, acceptance of rape myths and perceptions of rape as a social problem were measured. The movie incrtnsed awareness of date rape as a social problem acrossall demographicpups. The moviealso had a prosocial effect a older females who wme less likly to attribute blame to women in date rape situations after exposure. However, the opposite effect tended to Dccur among older men. Thefindings suggest that emotional involvement with a movie and selective perception of movie events may mediate the impact of social issue television programming.

G ender, sex-role socialization, and sexual violence in the mass media can be studied from a variety of perspectives. Re- searchers working from a critical studies approach might

concentrate on media depictions of rape as rooted in the political and cultural fabric of our society (e.g./ Fiske, 1987; Real, 1989). In contrast, the present study examines the mass media from a more individual-

Barbara ]. Wilson and Daniel Linz are Associate Professors and Edward Donnerstein a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Horst Stipp is Director of Social Research at the National Broadcasting Com- pany in New York. Funding for this study was provided by the National Broadcasting Company. Support for the authors and for previous studies by the authors cited herein was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant No. MH40894). Corre- spondence regarding this article should be addressed to Barbara J. Wilson, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4020.

Human Communication Research, Vol. 19 No. 2, December 1992 179-208 0 1992 Intcrnational Communication Association

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180 HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH / December 1992

istic, psychological perspective. Rather than analyzing images of sexual violence from an interpretive or historical point of view, this study focuses on an empirical question: What impact do such images have on viewers?

Research indicates that sex-role stereotypes in the mass media are pervasive (Eisenstock, 1984; Feldstein & Feldstein, 1982; Goffman, 1976; Rossi & Rossi, 1985; Sternglanz & Serbin, 1974). Such media depictions often prime sex-role schemata in viewers that, in turn, can influence their judgments of men‘s and women’s behavior in avariety of red-life domains (Eagly, 1978; Gutek & Stevens, 1979; Hansen & Hansen, 1988). Among the most problematic of media stereotypes are those concerning sexual violence, particularly certain images found in ”adult” videos and ”slasher” films. Research has shown that exposure to media depictions of rape in which the woman appears to be responsible for her own victimization or appears to enjoy the assault can result in several changes in men’s cognitive appraisal of sexual violence (Donnerstein, Linz, & Penrod, 1987). For example, exposure to a sexually explicit rape scene in which the victim shows a “positive” reaction produces a lessened sensitivity to rape (e.g., Malamuth & Check, 1983), an increased acceptance of rape myths and interpersonal violence against women (e.g., Malamuth & Check, 1981), and an increase in sexual arousal to rape (e.g., Malamuth, 1981). Further- more, sexual arousal to rape stimuli, a desire to hurt women, and a belief that rape would be a sexually-arousing experience for the rapist are all correlated with self-reported possibility of committing rape (Malamuth & Donnerstein, 1982).

Given the proliferation of videocassette rentals and cable television, sexually violent programming is likely to increase in availability and to reach wider audiences. In light of these trends, investigators are beginning to focus on efforts to counter the negative effects of such images. One recent approach involves actually using the mass media as a vehicle to educate viewers about sexual violence (e.g., Linz, Fuson, & Donnerstein, 1990). Generally, these educational efforts attempt to inform viewers about the problem of acquaintance or date rape.

Acquaintance rape has received a tremendous amount of attention, particularly on college campuses (Gibbs, 1991a). Research indicates that most women are raped by men they know and that assault by strangers accounts for only one in five rapes (Gibbs, 1991b). A recent survey of a nationally representative sample of adults indicates that nearly 20% of women have been in a situation with a man in which

Wilson et al. / IMPACT OF TV ON RAPE ATTITUDES 181

they said no but ended up having sex anyway (Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 1991a).

The purpose of the present study was to conduct an evaluation of audience responses to a made-for-TV movie about acquaintance rape, which was scheduled as part of a network's fall entertainment fare. We were interested in studying this movie because, in our judgment, it has a potentially prosocial message in spite of the fact that it was not designed primarily for that purpose. Specifically, we examined whether exposure to this movie could serve an educational function by decreasing acceptance of rape myths and/or increasing the belief that date rape is a serious social problem.

PREVIOUS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS

Several researchers have attempted to correct the negative effects of exposure to stereotypic media depictions of sexual violence. Some of these educational efforts were designed as debriefings for subjects who had participated in experiments involving sexually violent media content. Malamuth and Check (1984) conducted a study in which male and female participants were exposed to sexually explicit stories depicting either rape or mutually consenting intercourse. Af- terward, those exposed to the rape version were given statements emphasizing that the depiction of rape in the stories was fallacious and that, in reality rape is a terrible crime. Participants were also given specific examples of rape myths and assurance that these commonly held beliefs are fictitious. Those who were exposed to the rape stories and then debriefed were less inclined to perceive women as wanting to be raped and less likely to see victim's behavior as a cause of rape than were those who read the consenting story and received no debriefing.

Other small-scale educational efforts have attempted to sensitize participants to the issue of acquaintance rape prior to exposure to stereotypic images. Intons-Peterson and Roskos-Ewoldsen (1989; Intons-Peterson, Roskos-Ewoldsen, Thomas, Shirley, & Blut, 1989) administered to college-age men a prefilm briefing dealing with rape and sexual violence toward women. The briefing contained current information about rape drawn from the Uniform Crime Statistics, described common effects on victims, and debunked some general myths about rape by citing relevant statistics. The participants, along with a control group who had not seen the briefing, thenviewed either


a segment from an R-rated slasher film, a segment from an X-rated film that depicted sexual intercourse between two consenting adults, or a segment from a G-rated film. Following the film, participants viewed a videotaped reenactment of a rape trial (Linz, Donnerstein, & Penrod, 1988) and answered additional questions concerning their empathy for the accused rapist and the alleged victim. The prefilm briefing group showed a statistically significant decrease in rape myth acceptance following exposure to the slasher film segments compared to the nonbriefed control group. Further, the briefed persons were more likely to think that the accused rapist in the videotape trial had caused injury to the victim than were those in the nonbriefed group. Interestingly, the briefing p u p ’ s increased rejection of rape myths carried over to a session 2 weeks later.

Linz et al. (1990) compared three types of preexpsoure briefings designed to mitigate the effects of portrayals of violence against women. Male college students were shown two rape education films and a documentary on the psychological impact of slasher films and then were assigned to one of three conditions involving writing essays about the myths of sexual violence or about a neutral topic. Two additional control groups that did not watch the educational films were also included. Later, the men watched clips from sexually violent slasher films and saw a videotaped reenactment of an acquaintance rape trial. Rape myth acceptance was marginally lower for those men in all three intervention conditions. These men also showed significantly higher levels of depression in response to the slasher films, and assigned less responsibility to the victim portrayed in the rape trial for her own assault and more responsibility to the defendant than did subjects in the control conditions.

The interventions described thus far are only practical with rela- tively small p u p s of persons in a controlled setting. In contrast, there have been a few large-scale educational efforts that were targeted toward mass audiences. These efforts involved documentaries on rape (e.g., Cry Rape, Why Men Rape, A Scream of Silence) and on pornography (e.g., Not CI Love Stoy) that were created expressly to increase awareness of such issues among the general public.

A preliminary investigation of the impact of one of these documentaries, Not a Love Stoy, suggests that viewers may benefit from exposure to this type of content (Bart, Freeman, & Kimball, 1984). Bart et al. (1984) surveyed a group of 332 males and 318 females after they had viewed this documentary in an art film house in the Chicago area. The findings indicated that exposure to the film resulted in changes in


beliefs and attitudes about pornography (e.g., "I didn't know pornography was that violent" and "The film made me angrier about pornography"). Unfortunately, because the film audience was a naturally- occurring group, only self-reported attitude change was measured (i.e., subjects were asked if their attitudes about pornography changed after viewing the film). No attempt was made to assess prefilm viewing attitudes or to compare the viewers' attitudes with a matched control group.

In summary, previous laboratory studies demonstrate that interventions designed to change participants' beliefs about rape myths and acquaintance rape are successful, but these interventions are often time-consuming for participants and have been limited primarily to small groups of college students. Field studies of large-scale efforts are potentially more generalizable, but internally valid evaluations are rare. Additionally, all of this research has been limited to examin- ing the effects of materials that were specifically designed to be educational and not necessarily entertaining.

In September 1990, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) aired a made-for-TV movie about the trauma and aftermath of acquaintance rape.' This program, entitled She Said No, was featured during prime-time hours and attracted a large audience. In spite of competitive programming on other stations (e.g., The Queen of Mean: The Leona Helmsley Story and Running Man), the movie earned a Nielson share of 23, meaning that 23% of all households with televi- sions turned on to a network channel were tuned to this movie. The movie also earned a Nielson rating of 14.7, indicating that the program was seen in more than 13 million households. These audience statistics suggest that the movie was entertaining despite its prosocial, antirape-myth message. She Said No also received critical acclaim, winning an award from American Women in Radio and Television (ARWT) for its realistic portrayal of the plight of a rape victim.

The present study was designed to evaluate the potential for this film and others like it to increase public awareness of the negative consequences of date rape and to increase sympathy for victims of this crime. Unlike previous intervention research, this study possesses high external and internal validity. Several design features make it unique. First, the study employed a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, which permits us to generalize our findings to a broad range of American viewers. Second, individuals from this representative sample were then randomly assigned to view or not view the made-for-TV movie, allowing us to draw causal conclusions about the


impact of the program. Third, subjects viewed the television movie in their own home, providing a more naturalistic viewing environment than is achieved in most media experiments. A sample of 1,038 randomly selected adults from four locations across the United States were assigned to view or not view the movie over a closed-circuit channel prior to the network broadcast of the film. Afterward, participants’ acceptance of rape myths and perceptions of rape as a social problem were measured.

OBSTACLES TO PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS

If the effectiveness of other mass media campaigns are taken as an indication, there is reason to believe that educational movies about rape have great potential for informing the pubic and, under some conditions, might even change attitudes. Research evaluating the impact of televised antismoking information spots, for example, has demonstrated that these messages have been successful in increasing public awareness about the negative health consequences of smoking (Flay, 1986). However, this success presumably has been the result of the large number of antismoking messages delivered during popular viewing times. Many public service announcements do not produce significant effects because the campaigns consist of a small number of spots, often of questionable quality, that are delivered during non- prime viewing hours (Flay & Cook, 1989). For programs on rape and sexual violence to be effective, they must be viewed by a large pro- portion of the population, as was the case with this particular movie.

There are several other obstacles that may prevent even the most well-intentioned intervention in this area from succeeding. The belief that females deserve or secrrtly desire sexual assault may be espe- c idy difficult to m o w . These beliefs can provide males with a socially sanctioned justification for forced sexual access to unwilling females. A survey of a random sample of adults in Minnesota reported fairly high levels of agreement with such statements as “A woman who goes to the home or apartment of a man on a first date implies she is willing to have sex” and other beliefs measured by the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980). Another study, although preliminary and based on a nonrandom sample, found that college females sometimes engage in token resistance-saying no but meaning yes- in response to sexual double standards in society (Muehlenhard &


Hollabaugh, 1988). Moreover, there are strong individual differences in beliefs about male-female power relations, sex-role stereotyping, and hostility toward women (Malamuth, 1986). Thus there are many societal and personal factors, including sex-role socialization, mis- communication between the sexes, and individual differences that can foster rape myths (Koss & Leonard, 1984; Malamuth, Haber, & Feshbach, 1980). Programs designed to m o m attitudes about rape may make only a small dent in belief structures that are reinforced by these other factors.

Researchers have speculated that educational programs concerning rape and sexual violence aimed at large audiences may also result in serious unintended consequences for certain viewers (Malamuth, 1984). Selective influence theories of mass media suggest that people will interpret the same media content in different ways depending on their psychological predispositions, subculture orientations, and membership in social networks (see DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Zillmann & Bryant, 1985). Rape scenes may be sexually arousing to some members of the audience, and this arousal might interfere with the attitude changes sought by producers. In addition, these films often contain interviews with convicted rapists or dramatic portrayals of rapists who express rape myths. Certain audience members may attend to and process only that information that supports their pre- conceptions about rape and rape victims. In these cases, programs may produce greater rather than less acceptance of rape myths.

An early study on reader reactions to cartoons that were critical of racial prejudice found that prejudiced individuals either missed the message or distorted the meaning of the cartoons to reinforce their prejudices (Cooper & Jahoda, 1947). Vidmar and Rokeach (1974) also observed a selective perception effect among prejudiced viewers of the televised program Aff in the Family. Highly prejudiced persons were significantly more likely than less prejudiced persons to admire the bigoted character Archie over the liberal character Mike and were more likely to perceive Archie as winning in the end. In another demonstration of selective perception, Iyengar and Kinder (1987) found that viewers who were unsympathetic to Blacks rated unem- ployment as a less serious problem after exposure to a news story about a Black man’s struggle with job loss than after exposure to the same story featuring a White man’s struggle. An analogous type of unintended “boomerang” effect may operate, at least among certain viewers, for a movie such as She Said No.


PREDICTING PROGRAM IMPACT AS A FUNCTION OF DEMOGRAPHICS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

In general, then, prior attitudes and beliefs are likely to mediate the impact of a movie about date rape and may actually produce contrast- ing effects. Research suggests that at least three variables are related to acceptance of myths about rape: gender, age, and personal knowledge of a rape victim. Gender differences in rape attitudes have been found in a number of studies (e.g., Gibbs, 1991b). For example, one national public opinion poll found that women were more likely than men to classify the following situations as rape: “A man has sex with a woman who has passed out after drinking too much and “A man argues with a woman who does not want to have sex until she agrees to have sex” (YankelovichClancy Shulman, 1991b). Women were also more likely to disagree that ”some women like to be talked into having sex.”

Age differences in attitudes about rape have also been documented. A recent survey of U.S. adults found that respondents over age 50 years were more likely to believe that a woman who is raped is partly to blame if she is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, dresses provocatively, or agrees to go to the man’s room or home (Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 1991a). Burt (1980) and Gibbs (1991b) reported similar age patterns for rape myth acceptance and for rape attitudes.

Researchers have also speculated that personal knowledge of a rape victim may affect attitudes toward rape (Field, 1978a, 1978b), although this variable has proven to be problematic in empirical studies. Burt (1980) employed a set of personal experience variables, including personal knowledge of sexual assault victims and the number of victimsknown, as predictors of rape myth acceptance with little success. Still, it appears intuitively plausible, as well as theoretically predictable, that having a friend or relative who is a rape victim will result in increased empathy for that victim and a reduced tendency to blame her and that these feelings might generalize to other rape victims. In support of this notion, research on the “actor-observer effect” has shown that active or empathic observers are lesslikely than passive observers to make dispositional attributions for an actor’s behavior (Wolfson & Salancik, 1977). Consequently, empathic observers should be less likely to blame the rape victim personally and, instead, will attribute the incident to situational factors beyond her control.

Having personal knowledge of a rape victim may also increase audience involvement with a program about sexual assault. The elaboration-likelihood model (ELM) suggests that greater personal


involvement with a topic stimulates thoughts that can lead to increased persuasion so long as message quality is high (Petty & Cacioppo, 1990). Researchers hypothesize that involved partiupants employ thoughtful, systematic processing strategies that rely on message content, whereas uninvolved persons are more likely to use superficial or shortcut strategies that depend on simple or irrelevant cues rather than message content (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). People who are involved generate more cognitive responses that are sensitive to the message they encounter and will differentiate carefully between strong and weak arguments and between pro- and counterattitudinal arguments (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979; Petty Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981). If a media program on date rape convincingly argues that women are not often responsible for being raped, viewers who are personally involved with the issue should be most likely to be persuaded by the message.

HYPOTHESES

The research and theories reviewed above suggest that prior attitudes toward a topic can be an important mediating factor when studying the effects of media messages. Prior attitudes toward rape appear to be related to certain demographic variables and to personal experience with rape. Consequently we predicted the following outcomes:

H1: Women will be less accepting of rape myths and more likely to regard acquaintance rape as an important societal problem than will men.

H2: Older respondents will endorse rape myths more than will younger respondents.

H3: Those who have personal knowledge of a rape victim will be less accepting of rape myths and show more concern for the problem of date rape than will those who have no such personal knowledge.

Based on prior research demonstrating the success of laboratory debriefings, small-scale educational interventions, and public health messages, we also predicted a main effect for exposure to the movie:

H4 Exposure to the movie She Said No will result in increased concern for acquaintance rape as a societal problem and a decline in rape myth acceptance.


Finally, in accord with selective influence theories, we anticipated two interactions whereby the demographic variables and/ or personal experience might mediate the impact of the movie. First, women who have personal knowledge of a rape victim might be expected to experience the greatest amount of emotional involvement with a film that features a female rape victim and her plight. Based on the elaboration- likelihood model described above, these female viewers should also be the most likely to process the movie content carefully and to be persuaded by the strong antirape message in the film. Consistent with this notion, we predicted the following outcome:

H5: Females who have personal knowledge of a rape victim will be persuaded more by the movie's main message (show more concern for the problem of date rape) than will other demographic subgroups.

Second, the principle of selective perception suggests that we might reasonably anticipate an Exposure x Gender x Age interaction resulting in an unintended effect from exposure to She Said No. Al- though we predicted prosocial effects for most viewers, preexisting attitudes may interfere with this positive impact for some people. Those who already endorse certain rape myths may perceive the film differently than will others. Such persons may reinterpret the movie to fit their preconceived notions and may attend to irrelevant or stereotypic aspects of the presentation rather than focusing on the antirape content. Research suggests that males over 50 years of age are most likely to endorse rape myth attitudes and therefore may resist the movie's message. Thus the final hypothesis was posed:

H6: In contrast to all other viewer groups, older males who view the movie will be more likely to endorse rape myths than will older males who do not view the movie.

METHOD

Design

In a 2 x 3 x 2 x 2 factorial design, male and female adult participants from three age groups (18-34 years, 35-49 years, 50 years and older) were randomly assigned to view or not view the movie She Said No. A fourth factor, personal knowledge of a rape victim, was included in


the design once the data were collected. More than one third of the participants (36%) reported knowing personally someone who was a victim of rape.

Procedure

Viewers were contacted by AS1 Research, a survey research orga- nization that routinely conducts studies for the TV networks, and were asked to watch the movie over a closed-circuit cable channel on their television. These individuals were told that researchers were interested in people’s ”honest opinions” about the program. No specific information was provided in advance about the nature or content of the movie. The participants viewed the film without commercial interruption 3 days before the actual networkbroadcast of the movie. Therefore, there was no possibility that either the experimental or the control group could inadvertently watch the movie outside the con- text of this study. The next evening, still prior to the network broadcast of the movie, both viewers and nonviewers were contacted by an interviewer from AS1 Research via the telephone. The trained inter- viewers varied in age and were mostly women. Nonviewers were told that AS1 Research was conducting a survey on ”television viewing and reactions to different programs.” Viewers simply were told that AS1 Research had a few questions for them. All were asked a series of questions about social issue TV programming. Embedded in the survey was a set of items dealing with attitudes toward date rape.

Participants

Participants were recruited from four geographic regions of the United States: Amid-sized town in Delaware; a small town in Indiana; a large city in Oklahoma; and a mid-sized town in Northern Califor- nia. The researchers randomly selected 13,749 telephone numbers from lists of cable subscribers in the designated regions (see Table 1). Of these, 7,651 (57%) resulted in no contact. Of the remaining 5,924 “active” numbers with someone home, 3,095 (52%) involved an adult who was unable or refused to participate. Additionally, 82 telephone numbers (1%) involved an adult with language difficulties and 696 (12%) involved no one over 18 years of age at home. Finally, 1,013 numbers (17%) involved respondents who were not needed once a sufficient number of viewers and nonviewers from the two specified demographic categories (gender and age group) had been obtained.


TABLE 1 Breakdown of Subject Recruitment, by Geographic Region

CA IN OK DE Total

Noncontact phone numbers Disconnected 226 387 232 130 975 Nonresidential 48 46 28 25 147 No answer 928 1124 886 884 3,822 Answering machine 742 400 433 431 2,006 Busy 223 163 182 133 701

Total noncontad numbers 2,167 2,120 1,761 1,603 7,651

Contact phone numbers Refused to partiapate 914 850 576 755 3,095 Language difficulties 25 30 17 10 82 No adult at home 195 219 120 162 696 Quota filled 121 334 295 263 1,013 Completed interview 261 252 266 259 1,038

Total contact numbers 1,516 1,685 1,274 1,449 5,924

Total teleuhone numbers dialed 3.722 3,836 3,065 3,126 13,749

NOTE: Tabled values represent the hquency of dialed telephone numbers that fell into a particular category. The phone numbers are displayed according to four geographic regions that were sampled. CA = mid-sized city in California; IN = small town in Indiana; OK = large city in Oklahoma; DE = medium-sized city in Delaware.

The refusal rate reported here is somewhat higher than is typically found in telephone surveys, but the present study required participants to watch a 2-hour movie in addition to being interviewed. Many of the refusals were due to the fact that people were not planning to be home on the designated evening of the cable program. Because nothing specific was said about the movie, it is unlikely that its nature or content affected refusals.

The resulting sample of 1,038 adults who agreed to partiapate was divided equally across the four geographic regions sampled. Of these, 526 were randomly assigned to view the movie and 512 were assigned to the control group. Among the viewers, 316 were female and 210 were male. In addition, 230 were classified as younger (18-34 years), 109 were classified as middle-aged (35-49 years), and 187 were classified as older (50 years and older) viewers. This age classification scheme is commonly used by NBC for program development and


evaluation. In addition, these age breakdowns correspond with recent national polls described in the introduction, which have documented a strong shift in attitudes toward rape around age 50 (Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 1991a). Among the nonviewers, 308 were female and 204 were male. The age classification scheme categorized 228 as younger, 103 as middle-aged, and 181 as older nonviewers.

It should be noted that both viewers and nonviewers were randomly selected from the population of all adults with cable TV in four regions that varied in size and locale. Thus the resulting sample was representative of a cross section of cable households across the coun- try. Because over 60% of American homes have cable, this type of sample is fairly representative of a majority of households. Compared to the average household, however, cable households are more likely to be multiperson dwellings with a somewhat higher income.

Movie Content

She Said No was shown as the NBC Sunday Night Movie. The program is typical of many other made-for-TV movies in terms of length, casting, on-air promotion, and time slot. She Said No portrays the story of a young woman, Beth Early, who is raped by a man she meets in her evening French class. The man is Martin Knapek, a well-known attorney in town. He offers Beth a ride home one night after class and convinces her to stop for a bite to eat. After a little wine and dinner, he announces he must stop by his office to pick up some papers before he takes her home. She reluctantly accompanies him to his office, where he proceeds to rape her. In accordance with network television standards, the actual rape was not depicted. Rather, the movie showed Knapek turning violent and Beth’s unsuccessful struggle to escape. In our judgment, the depiction made it clear that a violent act or rape was taking place, but-in marked contrast to the adult videos and slasher films discussed above-the movie contained no titillating sexual images and the female character clearly did not consent to the act.

The remaining 90 minutes of the 2-hour movie involves the legal aftermath of the rape. Beth meets with a prosecutor and tries to convict Knapek of rape. During the legal proceedings, Knapek capitalizes on his image as a “respected citizen” and Beth realizes that she is actually on trial. The case results in a hung jury. Then, in a surprising twist, Knapek files a multi-million-dollar slander suit against Beth. Beth must face her assailant a second time in court, only this time he acts


as his own attorney. Throughout the ordeal, Beth feels as if she is being raped again, only this time by the legal system.

As with most social issue television programming, the setting of the movie is contemporary and the story is told in a realistic fashion. More than three fourths of the viewers thought the movie was based on a true story, although it was not. Additionally, the movie featured three popular TV actors, making the presentation appealing to viewers. A majority of viewers rated the movie as “thought provoking,” ”high quality,” “infonnative,” ”balanced,” ”realistic,” and “sensitive.’’ The movie was not perceived to be “too violent” or ”sexually explicit,” nor was it considered “offensive” or ”in poor taste” by the majority of viewers (see Linz, Wilson, & Donnerstein, 1991).

Measures

Five sets of questions were asked. The first set measured reactions to the movie and was presented only to the viewers. One of the questions asked viewers how emotionally involving the movie was (not at all, somewhat, or very). This item was included to test the idea that personal involvement with the message may heighten its persua- siveness, as suggested by the ELM.

Two additional questions dealt with how viewers interpreted or processed the movie content. Specifically, the items assessed perceptions of how responsible the main characters were for the sexual incident that occurred. The interviewer introduced the items as follows:

Now I’m going to ask you a few questions about the people in the movie. Did you see the scene in the first half hour when the man and the woman were alone in the man’s office?

Viewers who indicated that they had seen the specified scene (98%) were then asked, “Do you believe the woman, Beth Early, was not at all responsible, to some degree responsible, or very responsible for what happened in the office that night?” Similarly, viewers were also asked how responsible the man, Martin Knapek, was for what happened in the office that night (not at all responsible, to some degree responsible, or very responsible). These questions were included to test the notion that older males in particular may selectively perceive the movie’s main message (anti-date rape) differently from other viewers.

The second set of questions concerned perceptions of companies that sponsor social issue programming, and a third set concerned


exposure to a variety of previously aired social issue TV movies (e.g., Roe vs. Wade about abortion and Something About Amelia concerning child abuse). Both sets of questions were asked of nonviewers and viewers and are not reported here.

A fourth set of questions, also presented to all participants, asked about attitudes toward rape. The interviewer introduced the rape attitude items as follows:

O.K. now I am interested in one particular topic: acquaintance rape. I'm going to read you some statements with which some people agree and others disagree. As I read each one, please tell me whether you agree or disagree with the statement and also if you agree or disagree strongly or somewhat.

Respondents were then presented with five statements about rape, adapted from the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980) and from the Rape Empathy Scale (Deitz, Blackwell, Daley, &Bentley, 1982). The statements were as follows:

1. When a woman has drinks and dinner with a man, it is her own fault

2. After a rape has been reported, the man often suffers more emotional

3. When a woman says "no" to a man, he has no right to have sex with her. 4. When a man forces a woman he knows to have sex on a date, it should

5. The legal system is biased against women in rape cases.

if he forces sex on her.

pain in dealing with the police than does the woman.

be considered rape.

Next, participants were asked, "In your opinion, how many women who report an acquaintance rape or date rape are lying? Would you say almost none, about 1/4, about 1/2, about 3/4, or almost all?" This question was adopted from the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Finally, subjects were asked to rate how serious the problem of date rape is in our society (not at all, somaohat, or very).

The fifth set of questions involved demographic characteristics of the subjects. The following information was obtained for both viewers and nonviewers: gender, age group, and whether the subject personally knew anyone who had been raped.

It should be noted that the order of the questions was counterbal- anced for the viewers, who were asked to evaluate the movie and respond to rape attitude items. Nonviewers received only one order of the questionnaire. Half of the viewers evaluated the movie firsf (including the questions concerning the characters' responsibility for


the depicted sexual incident) and then answered the questions dealing with attitudes toward rape. The other half answered the rape attitude items first and then evaluated the movie. This approach provided a control for possible experimental demand effects in the questionnaire. For example, evaluating the movie first could increase awareness of the purpose of the study and consequently lead subjects to alter their responses to the rape myth items in a more socially desirable direction.

RESULTS

Factor Analysis of Rape Attitude Items

The seven items measuring attitudes toward rape were submitted to a factor analysis to determine whether a smaller set of underlying factors could represent the items. An examination of the overall correlation matrix among the seven items revealed that a factor analysis was an appropriate procedure. The correlation matrix was not an identity matrix (Bartlett’s test of sphericity = 468.55, p < .001). More- over, the variables as a set were adequately intercorrelated (Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin’s overall measure of sampling adequacy = .66, with item-by-item measures of sampling adequacy rangingfrom .63 to .72).

A principal components analysis with varimax rotation was conducted on the seven items. Three factors were extracted with eigen- values greater than or equal to 1 (see Table 2). The three factors to- gether accounted for 57.4% of the common variance (Factor 1 = 27.4%; Factor 2 = 15.1%; Factor 3 = 14.8%). With a primary loading criterion of .40 and a secondary loading criterion of .25, all but one of the items loaded on one and only one of the factors. The ”man suffers more” item had a secondary loading on the third factor (see Table 2).

Factor 1, labeled Blame Woman, was defined by three items, all indicating support for the idea that a woman is to blame in rape cases: A woman is at fault if a man forces sex on her after drinks and dinner, many women who report date rape are lying, and a man often suffers more pain in dealing with police after a reported rape than does a woman. Factor 2, labeled Wrongful Coercion, was defined by two items, both dealing with the idea that coerced sex is wrong: the belief that when a woman says “no” a man has no right to have sex with her and the belief that forced sex on a date should be considered rape. Factor 3, labeled Societal Concern, was also defined by two items, both


TABLE 2 Factor Analysis of Rape Attitude Items

Rape Attitude lterns Factor 1 Factor 2 Rctor 3

.81 -.09 .09 Woman‘s own fault - Women are lying -

Forcible sex is rape -.06 .80 .20 Biased legal system .03 -21

.59 -.11 -.08

.58 -.05 -.31 No means no -.17 .80 -.07

.77

.70

- Man suffers more - -

- - Date rape serious problem -.21 -.07

Eigenvalue 96 of variance

1.91 1.06 1.04 27.4 15.1 14.8

indicating a concern for the societal problems associated with date rape: the belief that the legal system is biased against women in rape cases and the belief that date rape is a serious problem in our society.

ANOVAs on Three Factors

Prior to conducting any analyses, we tested for an effect arising from the ordering of questions presented to the viewers. Viewers who answered the rape attitude items before evaluating the movie were compared with those who answered the rape items after evaluating the movie. Results of t tests on the factor scores for each of the three rape factors indicated that there were no significant differences among the viewers as a function of question order.2 Thus the two groups of viewers were combined in all subsequent analyses.

A 2 (Exposure: control, viewers) x 2 (Gender) x 3 (Age Group) x 2 (Personal Knowledge of a Rape Victim) unweighted-means analysis of variance was conducted on the factor scores for each of the three rape factors. Post hoc comparisons were conducted using the Scheffe procedure. Means that have no letter in common in their subscripts differed at p < .05.

The analysis of the first factor, Blame Woman, revealed a sigruficant main effect for Gender, F(1,997) = 8.87, p < .01, eta’ = .01. Males were more likely to blame the woman in date rape situations (M = .08) than were females (M = -.13). The analysis also resulted in a sigruficant main effect for Age Group, F(2,997) = 6.38, p < .01, eta’ = .01. Pairwise comparisons revealed that those in the oldest age group were more

1% HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH / December 1992

likely to blame the woman (50+ years: M = .lk) than were those in the two younger age groups (18-34 years: M = -.09; 35-49 years: M = -.13J, which did not differ from each other. A third main effect emerged for Personal Knowledge of a Rape Victim, F(1,997) = 6.54, p = .01, eta’ = .01. Subjects who did not personally know a rape victim were more likely to blame the woman (M = .07) than were those who did know a rape victim (M = -.ll)

Although there was no significant main effect for movie Exposure, there was a three-way interaction between Exposure, Gender, and Age Group, F(2, 997) = 4.73, p c .01, eta’ = .01. Post hoc interaction comparisons revealed that the movie had a differential effect on males and females in the oldest age group (see Table 3). Pairwise comparisons revealed that among these 50 years of age and older, females who viewed the movie were significantly less likely to blame the woman in date rape situations than were females who did not see the movie. In fact, exposure to the movie caused females in the older age group to decrease their blame of the woman to the same level reported by females in the two younger age groups. This positive effect was not evident among older males. Instead, older males who viewed the movie tended to blame the woman somewhat more than did males who did not see the movie (see Figure 1). This “boomerang” effect fell just short of statistical significance. As can be seen from Table 3, the movie had no differential effect among males and females in the two younger age groups.

Analysis of the second factor, Wrongful Coercion, revealed a significant main effect for Gender, F(1, 997) = 8.11, p c .01, eta2 = ..01. Females were more likely to perceive date rape as wrongful coercion (M = .04) than were males (M = -.16). The only other significant finding in this analysis was a main effect for Age Group, F(2,997) = 7.11, p c .01, eta’ = .01. Post hoc comparisons revealed that subjects in the youngest group were more likely to perceive date rape as wrongful coercion (18-34 years; M = .&,) than were those in the two older age groups (35-49 years: M = -.13a; 50+ years; M = -.15=), which did not differ from each other.

Analysis of the third factor, Societal Concern, revealed a significant main effect for Exposure to the movie, F(1,997) = 4.26, p c .05, eta’ = .004. The effect was a prosocial one: Subjects who saw the movie were more likely to be concerned about the societal problems associated with date rape (M = .04) than were those in the control group (M = -.11).

The analysis also resulted in a highly significant main effect for Gender, F(1,997) = 70.07, p c .001, eta’ = .07. Females reported more


TABLE 3 Mean Factor Scores for Blame Woman Factor as

a Function of Movie Exposure, Gender, and Age Group

Age 18-34 Years Age 35-49 Years Age 50+ Years

Females Males Females Males Females Males

Control -.29, .lo, -20, .06, 2% . l oab Viewers -.18,b .m,b -.ma -.l8, -.13a .Mb Control /viewer

M difference -.llAB .1O,c .OO,c .24cD . 3 6 -.30,

NOTE: Tabled values reflect mean factor scores on the Blame Woman factor. Higher scores indicate more agreement that the woman is to blame in cases of date rape. Means were compared within each age group only. Means with no lowercaseletter in common in their subscripts differ at p c .05 according to the Scheffb procedure. The bottom row displays mean differences between the control group and the viewers for each of the six groups based on gender and age. Mean differences with no uppercase letter in common in their subscripts differ significantly at p c .05 according to the Scheffb procedure.

concerns about the problems associated with date rape (M = .25) than did males (M = -.32). The only other significant finding was a main effect for Personal Knowledge of a Rape Victim, F(1’997) = 3.81, p = .05, eta’ = .003. Subjects who personally knew a rape victim were more concerned about the societal problems of date rape (M = .03) than were subjects who did not know a rape victim (M = -.lo).

Viewer Involvement With the Movie

To test the idea that females with personal knowledge of a rape victim might experience the greatest amount of involvement with the movie, we examined viewer ratings of emotional involvement. A 2 (Gender) x 3 (Age Group) x 2 (Personal Knowledge of a Rape Victim) unweighted-means analysis of variance was conducted on these ratings. The only significant finding was a main effect for Gender, F(l, 508) = 21.99, p c .001, eta’ = .04. Females rated the movie as more emotionally involving (M = 2.74) than did males (M = 2.46).

Viewer Interpretations of the Movie

To test the notion that people selectively interpret or process media content, we examined viewer ratings of how responsible the two characters were for the incident in the man’s office. Perceptions of each character’s degree of responsibility for the depicted incident


0.6 -

0.5 -

0.4 -

0.3 -

0.2 - 0.1 -

0.0 -

-0.1 -

m 9 .

50+ AGEGROUP

’ ’ + \ --om

’0

’ ’ \ ’

MALE

FEMALE

-.- CONTROL VIEWER

Figure 1: Mean Scores for Blame Woman Factor Among Subjects in the Oldest Age Group

could range from 1 (not at all responsible) to 3 (very responsible). Overall, more than three fourths of the viewers perceived the female character as “not at all responsible,” and over 85% perceived the male character to be ”very responsible.”

To determine whether the movie content was interpreted differently by different subgroups, a 2 (Gender) x 3 (Age Group) x 2 (Personal Knowledge of a Rape Victim) unweighted-means analysis of variance was conducted on the mean ratings for each character.

The analysis of how responsible the female character was for the incident revealed a significant Gender x Age Group interaction, F(2,


TABLE 4 Mean Difference Scores in Perceived Responsibility for the

Depicted Sexual Incident as a Function of Gender and Age Group

Age 18-34 Years Age 3549 Years Age 50+ Years

Females 1 .74 1.62,b 1.6% Males 1.50,b 1.78b 1.44,

NOTE Tabled values reflect mean difference scores in viewer perceptions of how responsible each of the two main characters was for the depicted sexual incident. Scores could range from -2 (male character "not at all" responsible, female character "very" responsible) to 2 (male character "very" responsible, female character "not at all" responsible). All pairwise comparisons were conducted. Means with no letter in common in their subscripts differ at p < .05 according to the Scheffk procedure.

506) = 3.19, p c .05, eta' = .01. Pairwise comparisons revealed that the oldest men attributed significantly more blame to the female character ( M = 1.38,) than did the oldest women ( M = 1.17ab). In fact, the oldest men's mean score was the highest observed among the six Age x Gender subgroups (18-34 years: females, M = 1.14,, males, M = 1.32b; 35-49 years: females, M = 1.23,,, males, M = 1.15ab). There was also a gender difference among the youngest group, such that the youngest men attributed a significantly higher degree of blame to the female character than did the youngest women. No gender differences emerged for the middle-aged group. The only other significant effect in this analysis was a main effect for Gender, F(1,506) = 4.78, p < .05, eta' = .01, which was primarily due to the interaction just described.

The analysis of how responsible the male character was for the sexual incident resulted in no significant effects. Most subjects perceived the man as "very" responsible ( M = 2.85).

To directly compare the degree of responsibility attributed to the female versus the male character, a difference score was created for each viewer based on the individual ratings for each character. Scores could range from -2 (male character "not at all" responsible, female character "very" responsible) to 2 (male character "very" responsible, female character "not at all" responsible). An analysis of variance of these scores revealed another significant interaction between Gender and Age Group, F(2,506) = 3.17, p < .05, eta' = .01. As can be seen in Table 4, the oldest men were significantly more likely than the oldest women to attribute more responsibility for the sexual incident to the female character than to the male character. There were no such


gender differences between the two younger age groups, and no other effects emerged in this analysis.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study generally indicate that a dramatic movie on television can be a useful tool in educational efforts aimed at altering perceptions about a social issue such as date rape. At the same time, the findings suggest that further research is needed to explore how prior attitudes about rape, which seem to diminish the positive impact of such televised content among some groups, can be modified.

In terms of specific predictions, the three hypotheses involving demographic and experiential differences in rape attitudes were strongly supported. The first hypothesis involved gender differences in such beliefs. Indeed, all three rape factors derived from the factor analysis revealed main effects for gender. Females were less likely to blame the woman in a date rape situation, more likely to perceive date rape as wrongful coercion, and more likely to be concerned about the societal problems associated with date rape than were men. Such patterns are consistent with previous research on demographic correlates of attitudes toward rape (eg , Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 1991a, 1991b).

The second hypothesis posited that older individuals would endorse rape myths more than would younger ones. Results for two of the three rape attitude factors supported this prediction. Those 50 years of age and above were significantly more likely to blame the woman in a date rape situation than were those in both of the younger age groups. The two younger age groups did not differ from each other in their perceptions of blame. In addition, the oldest age group was significantly less likely than the youngest age group to perceive date rape as wrongful coercion. For this factor, the middle-aged group’s perceptions were more similar to those of the oldest rather than the youngest group. However, there were no age differences for the third factor, Societal Concern. Thus elderly adults in our society may be more likely to endorse rape myths, but they do not appear to be less concerned than younger adults about the societal problems associated with date rape.

The third hypothesis predicted differences in rape attitudes as a function of personal knowledge of a rape victim. Two of the three rape


factors revealed an effect for this variable. Individuals who had personal knowledge of a rape victim were less likely to blame a woman in a date rape situation and were more concerned about the societal problems of date rape than were those who did not personally know a rape victim. These findings support the idea that concern and empathy for a friend or a relative who has been raped can generalize to other rape victims. Unexpectedly, personal experience had no impact on the rape factor, Wrongful Coercion. Perhaps definitional judgments about what constitutes rape are less affected by emotional reactlons (i.e., empathy for a known victim) than are beliefs about female responsibility in, and the seriousness of, date rape.

The remaining hypotheses concerned the impact of the movie. Hypothesis 4 predicted that exposure to She Said No would influence attitudes toward date rape in spite of the suspected impact of certain mediating factors. This prediction was partially supported, in that one of the rape factors, Societal Concern, revealed a sigruficant main effect for exposure. Specifically, exposure to the movie caused viewers to perceive the problem of date rape as more serious and to more strongly agree that the legal system is biased against women in rape cases.

The increase in perceived seriousness of rape as a problem is analogous to a mass media agenda-setting effect. Numerous studies have shown that exposure to news stories about particular issues can cause audiences to rank such issues as more important when con- fronted with a variety of social problems (e.g., Iyengar & Kinder, 1987). In this study, the message was not a news story but a dramatic movie involving a fictional event. Nevertheless, the majority of viewers (80%) actually believed that the fictional depiction was based on a true story. This perceived realism makes the agenda-setting analogy more pertinent and also suggests that the believability of the movie was a contributing factor to its positive effect.

The fact that the movie had an impact on perceptions about the legal system is not surprising given the main theme of the film. As noted earlier, the rape Scene occurred within the first 30 minutes of the movie, and the remaining 90 minutes focused on the legal difficulties experienced by the female character. The message that the court system can be unfair, especially when a well-respected man is accused by a woman, obviously influenced viewers, many of whom presumably had little personal experience with the legal ramifications of date rape.


In contrast, the movie had no straightforward effect on beliefs tapped by the other two rape factors. The Blame Woman factor revealed an effect for the film that depended on viewer predispositions and is discussed below. The Wrongful Coercion factor was not affected by exposure at all. Overall, then, these findings suggest that the movie had a somewhat limited effect on rape attitudes. Such a pattern is not surprising for a number of reasons. The film was an entertainment program rather than a purposely constructed educational message. Moreover, viewers were not given any supplemental instructional materials typically employed in laboratory studies of such interventions. Finally, the movie was an isolated 2-hour message that was not part of a comprehensive, multifaceted educational plan. Research indicates that interpersonal and community support sys- tems are often needed in addition to media campaigns, particularly when trying to change deep-rooted attitudes and behavior patterns (Stipp & Weinman, in press).

The last two hypotheses posited interactions between exposure to mass media and audience characteristics. Based on the elaboration- likelihood model, Hypothesis 5 predicted that females who had personal knowledge of a rape victim would be most persuaded by the movie because of high personal involvement with the issue of rape. This hypothesis was not supported. None of the three rape factors revealed a three-way interaction between gender, personal experience, and exposure to the movie. Consistent with these null findings, there was also no interaction between gender and personal knowledge of a rape victim on the viewer measure of emotional involvement with the movie. Instead, all women, regardless of their knowledge of a rape victim, reported more emotional involvement with the film than did men. Accordingly, the ELM would predict that women in general would process the movie content carefully and consequently be more persuaded. But they were not as a group more likely to be persuaded than men were. Perhaps women attended closely to the movie, yet were unaffected by its message because they already pos- sessed strong antirape attitudes. This explanation receives partial support by the results described below.

The final hypothesis posited a possible "boomerang" effect for the movie among older males, who we hypothesized are most likely to endorse rape myths. The Blame Woman factor revealed a significant three-way interaction between gender, age, and exposure to the movie. The interaction effect can be located within the oldest age


group (adults 50 years and above). However, the data suggest a prosocial effect more so than a boomerang effect. Older females (50 years of age or above) who watched the movie were sigruficantly less likely to blame the woman in date rape situations than were older females who did not watch the movie.

Why did older women show such a strong prosocial effect on the Blame Woman factor? One possible explanation concerns the initial attitudes of this subgroup. As evidenced by the control group data, older females were initially more likely than younger subgroups to blame women for date rape. In other words, the younger subgroups already appeared to accept the message of the movie, leaving little room for a strong educational effect. The overall impact of the movie, then, was to bring the oldest females closer to the younger groups in terms of perceptions of victim blame.

This type of prosocial effect was not, however, observed among the oldest men who also initially tended to endorse rape myths. Instead, older men who viewed the movie were actually somewhat more likely to blame women in date rape situations than were older men who did not see the movie. However, this difference fell just short of statistical significance and thus technically failed to support a boomerang effect.

To further explore the sigruhcant prosocial effect among older women and the tendency toward an unintended effect among older men, we examined viewers‘ interpretations of the movie. Consistent with the principle of selective perception, older men construed the movie differently from other subgroups, including older women. That is, the oldest men were sigruhcantly more likely than the oldest women to blame the female movie character (Beth Early) for the rape. Additionally, the oldest men were more likely than the oldest women to attribute more responsibility for the sexual incident to the female character than to the male character. In fact, the oldest men’s mean scores for both measures of the female character’s responsibility were higher than those of any other age-gender subgroup.

Thus older men were more likely to process or interpret the rape scene in the movie in a stereotypical fashion. Their selective perceptions presumably endured throughout the movie, such that the movie’s antirape message had little effect. Instead, the film tended to reinforce certain rape myths (i.e., the woman is responsible, the man suffers more) among viewers in this subgroup.

To summarize, both older men and older women initially tended to endorse certain rape myths, as evidenced by the control group data.


Unlike younger subgroups then, viewers over the age of 50, regardless of gender, stood to gain most from the movie’s educational message. Yet selective interpretations of the events in the movie, particularly the rape in the office, presumably prevented older men from benefit- ing from the movie’s message. The final question concerns why the older women did not also interpret the office incident in a way that was consistent with their initial endorsement of rape myth stereotypes.

The data concerning emotional involvement provide an explanation for the differential interpretations of the movie. As noted in the introduction, the ELM and other social cognition research suggest that involved people engage in more thoughtful, systematic processing of messages than do uninvolved people (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). In our study, women reported significantly more emotional involvement with the movie than did men. This finding is consistent with research that suggests that viewers frequently identify and empathize with same-sex rather than opposite-sex characters (see Hoffner & Cantor, 1991). The events depicted in She Said No were presented primarily from the female victim‘s perspective. Emotional involvement with the female character presumably allowed older women to employ a careful processing strategy that focused on message content rather than a superficial, shortcut strategy based on stereotypes. Older men, by contrast, were less involved and therefore relied on their stereotypical beliefs about date rape as a shortcut for processing the movie events.

It should be emphasized that the other two rape attitude factors did not reveal a differential effect of the movie on older males and females. As described above, the Wrongful Coercion factor revealed no impact whatsoever for the movie, and the Societal Concern factor resulted in an effect for exposure that was independent of age and gender. In other words, these same older men who tended to blame the victim for her dilemma and found some reinforcement for rape myths in the movie were also influenced positively by the film. After watching the film, they, like other viewers, were more likely to perceive date rape as a serious social problem and to agree that the legal system is biased against women in date rape cases.

Still, the findings do suggest that as long as there are people in a society who endorse rape myths, the possibility of an unintended boomerang effect does exist. However, we have some evidence to suggest that unintended effects are more likely to occur in a controlled study like this in which adults are recruited to view a movie that they

Wilson et al. / IMPACT OF TV ON RAPE ATI?TUDES 2.05

might not ordinarily choose to watch. In a related study we surveyed a random sample of 966 adults from the same four geographic regions after the movie She Said No aired on network television (Linz et al., 1991). We compared those who chose to view the prime-time movie with those who did not view it in terms of their scores on the three rape factors. No negative effects of the movie were observed on any of the rape attitude factors for any subgroup. In addition, we found that She SaidNo was more likely to be viewed by females than by males and by younger adults than by older adults. Under normal viewing circumstances then, those who strongly endorse rape myths probably will not choose to watch a movie that condemns such attitudes, rendering a boomerang effect unlikely.

In summary, exposure to this made-for-TV movie did have a positive, albeit limited, effect on viewer perceptions of rape. The most pervasive effect was to heighten awareness of the social problems associated with acquaintance rape. This type of informational or agenda-setting effect occurred for all viewers, regardless of age, gender, or personal knowledge of a rape victim. In contrast, the movie had a less dramatic effect on rape myths, in part because prior attitudes appeared to mediate this impact. Our findings enable us to isolate a subgroup for whom these types of movies may have a particularly salient effect, namely, older women. These older females, who were just as likely as older men to endorse rape myths before seeing the film but who also were more likely to become emotionally involved with the movie, showed the greatest attitude change after exposure.

Our confidence in these findings is strengthened by the fact that this study employed a nationally representative sample of adults, who were randomly assigned to view or not view a highly typical, social issue TV movie in a naturalistic viewing environment. Concom- itant internal and external validity is seldom achieved in mass media intervention research.

Future research should be devoted to exploring the use of such nondidactic entertainment fare in educational efforts designed to combat rape myths. Studies should also explore the long-term effects of such presentations. In our study, subjects were queried 1 day after exposure to the movie. Combining movies with instructional supple- ments and group discussions may enhance the scope and longevity of intervention effectiveness. As with all such programs, the possibility of a boomerang effect cannot be ruled out. Our data indicate that

206 HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH I December 1992

older men may interpret social issue programs about rape in a somewhat stereotypical fashion and that these perceptions may interfere with any educational impact from such films. Still, the fact that this kind of television program can have a positive impact among so many population groups is a promising finding.

NOTES

1. "Made-for-TV" movies such as She Said No are produced by movie/television production companies for a network and licensed for airing by the network. They are typically sold later to other broadcasters or cable. In some instances, they are aired theatrically abroad. She Said No aired Sunday, September 23,1990 on the NBC network from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The length of the movie without commercials and other nonprogramming material is about 90 minutes. She Said No was written and produced by Michael OHara at Steve White Productions.

2. The t-test values were as follows: Blame Woman, t(517) = .16, p = 37; Wrongful Coercion, t(517) = -.30, p = .76; and Societal Concern, t(517) = -77, p = .a.

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The Impact of Social Issue Television Programming on Attitudes Toward Rape

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