Legitimized aggression and sexual coercion: Individual differences in cultural spillover

Correlations between aggressive attitudes and sexual coercion have consiste ntly been found in numerous empirical studies across social science discipl ines, Extrapolating from sociological research linking indices of legitimat e aggression by state to statewide frequencies of rape, we have extended th e investigation of legitimate aggression and coercive sexuality to the indi vidual level. The specific purposes of this research were to index the brea dth and level of endorsement of legitimized aggression at the individual le vel and to measure the association between such an index and coercive sexua l behavior. These purposes were achieved across the course of three studies in which we created a new dispositional measure, the Proclivity for Legiti mized Aggression Questionnaire (PLAQ), and replicated a sociocultural level correlation with coercive sexual behavior (Study 1); assessed the individu al differences level construct validity of the PLAQ (Study 2); and tested w hether endorsement of items on the PLAQ were related to content-relevant be haviors (Study 3), The PLAQ was internally consistent, modestly but signifi cantly correlated with a measure of self-reported coercive sexual behavior, and characterized by promising construct validity, (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss.Inc ..