Do Personality Traits Moderate the Effect of Attitudes on Sexual Violence Perpetration? A Trait and Facet-Level Analysis

Adversarial sexual beliefs (ASB)—which encompass a range of hostile, prejudicial, stereotypical, or false beliefs about women, masculinity, sexual activity, and rape—are well-established risk factors for sexual violence perpetration. Although personality traits such as Antagonism (low Agreeableness) and Disinhibition (low Conscientiousness) are associated with an increased risk for perpetrating of sexual violence, their predictive utility diminishes when the effect of ASB is accounted for. Emerging evidence also suggests that the association between ASB and sexual violence perpetration may depend on other individual-difference risk factors, including personality traits; however, researchers have yet to examine whether personality traits or facets (i.e., lower-order units of personality) moderate the association between attitudes and sexual violence perpetration. Therefore, the present study investigated whether both general trait Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, as well as pathological Antagonism and Disinhibition—along with their lower-order facets—moderate the association between ASB and sexual violence perpetration. A total of 483 undergraduate men (ages 18–26) who reported past-year sexual activity with a female partner completed an online survey assessing attitudes, personality, and past sexual violence perpetration. Results from a preliminary exploratory factor analysis identified that the variance in items assessing sexual violence perpetration are explained using a three-factor model of perpetration based on tactics used to obtain unwanted sexual activity: psychological coercion (Factor 3.1), behavioral coercion (Factor 3.2), and post-refusal coercion (Factor 3.3). Preliminary analyses also replicated prior findings, showing that personality traits added minimal predictive value beyond ASB. Results from trait and facet-level moderation analyses revealed that the associations between ASB and both behavioral and post-refusal coercion were moderated by general trait Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, as well as several of their respective lower-order facets. No moderating effects were found for pathological traits (Antagonism, Disinhibition) or their corresponding facets. Findings from the present study enhance our understanding of how ASB interacts with personality traits in predicting sexual violence perpetration, suggesting that the impact of attitudinal risk is conditional upon specific personality profiles. Implications for developing and tailoring sexual violence prevention programs are discussed.