WOMENS TOKEN RESISTANT AND COMPLIANT SEXUAL BEHAVIORS ARE RELATED TO UNCERTAIN SEXUAL INTENTIONS AND RAPE

Muehlenhard and Hollabaugh reported that 39% of college women engaged in ''token resistance'' (said ''no'' but wanted to have sex). Many of these women's reasons for their behaviour explained a sexual refusal b ut not token resistance. The authors hypothesize that many token resis tant women honestly refused but later decided to have sex. Evidence in dicates that token resistant behavior occurs on or after the 11th date , whereas resistant behavior (said ''no'' and meant no) occurs earlier . In addition, 83% of token resistant women had more than one sexual i ntention during the token resistant episode. They said they resisted o r were uncertain before they said ''no'' and meant yes. The authors co nclude that most token resistant behavior is a change of intention tha t is poorly recalled because of memory consolidation. Women's complian t sexual behavior (agreeing to unwanted sex) occurs for relationship m aintenance reasons. Both behaviors are related to women's histories of rape.