Sex And Aggression

Procedure

At the preliminary stage of the experiment, PSY 240.001 students were given two handouts, an answer sheet and a page with two illustrated cartoons without any text from Dr. John Radiker. PSY 240.001 students asked two participants to review a page that depicted five neutral cartoons. These cartoons illustrated normal, everyday scenarios that involved communication between people and demonstrated no negative connotations. Along with the page of cartoons, an answer sheet was enclosed for participants to compose their own captions for each cartoon. The intent of the experiment is not mentioned to the participant at this time, but will be addressed at the end of the experiment. After evaluating these cartoons, participants were instructed to write their own cartoon caption for what is possibly being said in the given image. Using (1) an ordinary or everyday caption for what is being said in the cartoon and (2) a caption that is funny or humorous for what is being said in the cartoon.

After the participant filled out his/her answer sheet, the experimenter then collaborated with an unbiased, uninformed, non-participant that was a non-PSY 240.001 student and had no affiliations with the experiment. The experimenter asked him/her to review and rate the captions for any sexual and aggressive undertones. Once the non-participant reviewed the captions, an implemented point system was used to rate each caption for its sexual and aggressive content. The point system consisted of numbers 1-3, (1) Demonstrating no sexual/aggressive content, (2) demonstrating moderate amounts of sexual/aggressive content and (3) demonstrating a blatant amount of sexual/aggressive content.