Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students?

Abstract

This study investigated short-term effects of exposure to hip-hop music videos with varying degrees of sexual imagery on viewers' acceptance of the objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, gender attitudes, and rape myth acceptance. Using a posttest-only group experimental design, college undergraduates (N = 195) viewed a set of 5 hip-hop music videos of either high or low sexual content. Male participants who were exposed to hip-hop music videos of highly sexual content expressed greater objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, stereotypical gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape at posttest than male participants in the low sex condition. Results for female participants were mixed. In addition, hip-hop fandom played a significant role in participants' objectification of women and sexual permissiveness. Implications are discussed within the frameworks of vicarious learning through the media and parasocial interaction with media figures.

Notes

Note. All items used 7-point Likert-type scales from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Scale items were selected using SPSS Principal Components Analysis with oblique rotation.

^a Each set of 5 items was asked for each level of sexual involvement (sexual touching, oral sex, and sexual intercourse), for a total of 15 items.

^b Items for this scale were developed using Kalyanaraman, Steele, and Sundar (2000) as a guide, however, additional items were created for this study, others were modified for clarity based on the instrument pretest, and all were worded so as to create separate items for male and female participants assessing the acceptance of female objectification by men.

^c Some items were slightly modified from the original scale to clarify that the rape victim is female and the perpetrator male, given today's greater awareness among college students in particular of men as potential rape victims.

Note. Shared lowercase subscripts indicate a significant difference at p < .05; uppercase p < .01.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle E. Kistler

Michelle E. Kistler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Her research interests include media psychology, health communication, family communication, and adolescent development.

Moon J. Lee

Moon J. Lee (Ph.D., University of Florida, 2001) is Associate Professor at the University of Florida. Her research interests include development and evaluation of new media technologies, health communication, public relations research, media effects, and information processing and decision-making process of rebellious individuals.