Men who frequently stare at women more likely to pose threat: study

By Stephen Beech

Men who ogle women are more likely to pose a sexual threat, suggests a study.

Those who frequently stare at women’s bodies - rather than their faces, are more likely to harbor "harmful attitudes" and show tendencies that may lead to sexual assault, according to the findings.

Researchers examined pervasive body gaze associations with explicit, implicit, and physiological sexual assault propensity measures. 

Study author Dr. Ross Hollett, of Edith Cowan University, Australia, said: “The most significant finding is that pervasive body gaze behavior in heterosexual men towards women is strongly correlated with various markers of sexual assault propensity.

“Specifically, pervasive body gaze is linked with rape myth acceptance attitudes, prior perpetration of sexual assault, stronger implicit associations between erotica and aggression, and lower physiological emotional responses to images of partially dressed injured women.

“This indicates that men who frequently engage in body gaze are more likely to hold insidious attitudes and exhibit behaviors that facilitate sexual assault and are potentially desensitized to victimized women.”

The study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, builds on previous research by further validating the "pervasive body gaze scale" - a method developed by Dr. Hollett in 2022, which has been verified through the use of eye tracking technology to measure gaze patterns.

He said: “The previous study established correlations between body gaze behavior and victim-blaming attitudes.

“The current study extends these findings by demonstrating that pervasive body gaze also correlates with implicit and psychological measures related to sexual assault, as well as the actual perpetration of sexual assault, providing stronger evidence of the validity of the body gaze scale as a marker of sexual objectification and assault propensity.”

Dr. Hollett says understanding the attitudes and behaviors that precede or accompany sexual assault is "crucial" for predicting and reducing the likelihood of offending.

He said: “Because pervasive body gaze is a readily observable social behavior, these new insights offer valuable guidance for detecting deviant sexual objectification attitudes.

“This could be instrumental in developing risk assessments, estimating intervention efficacy, and enhancing public awareness about sexual assault and objectification.”

Dr. Hollett says the next steps for the research involve implementing the pervasive body gaze scale in applied settings, such as prevention or intervention programs for university students or sex offenders.

He added: "Studies could track changes in body gaze behavior and its correlation with sexual assault-related outcomes over time.

“Additionally, developing gaze intervention tasks to deliberately disrupt body gaze towards women and encourage face gaze behavior could be beneficial.

"This could involve developing brief computerized attention tasks that aim to reduce cognitive and attentional biases towards women’s bodies.”