Psychopathic Traits and Attitudes Associated With Self-Reported Sexual Aggression in College Men

The relationships among psychopathic personality traits, rape-supportive attitudes, and self-reported sexual aggression were examined in a sample of 191 college men. It was hypothesized that participants who reported severe sexually aggressive acts (i.e., coerced intercourse) would endorse items indicating more extreme psychopathic traits than those who reported only less severe acts. In addition, we expected that psychopathic traits would play a unique role in severe sexual aggression, above the contribution of rape-supportive attitudes. Results were strongly supportive of the first hypothesis; however, there was no evidence that traits and attitudes contribute to sexually aggressive behavior in different ways. The discussion considers similarities and differences in the contribution of traits and attitudes to the development of sexually aggressive behavior.