A research project from Portugal has developed three standardized pornographic film clips meant for use in testing heterosexual male subjects’ ability to recognize and appropriately respond to a woman’s cues expressing consent or non-consent. Each 90-second film clip depicted the face of the same actress experiencing intercourse with an off-camera male: in one she showed visible signs of pleasure (smiling, intense breathing, lip biting, looking straight into the camera, moaning or giggling with pleasure), in another she shows obvious distress (pushing the man away), and in the third she is passive with no indication of either pleasure or pain (mouth closed, no sounds). Unsurprisingly, most men found the first video sexually arousing, but not the other two. However, men who had a history of sexual aggression revealed less negative affect in response to the third video, where the woman’s responses were ambiguous.
Such videos could in the future be coupled with penile plethysmography to perform “risk assessment” of sex offenders. Whether it would predict re-offending more accurately than the current flawed instruments remains to be seen.
