Decisional conflict and empathy: a pilot study examining college’s students participation in and perpetration of unwanted sex

College students experience consistently high rates of sexual assault in the United States. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that influence how college students communicate prior to and during sexual activity. Sexual coercion is more common among college students; yet there is a dearth of literature on students’ experiences and the nuances of sexual coercion. One hundred and thirty six college students completed an online survey as part of a pilot study exploring how empathy and decisional conflict affect whether students initiate sex with a partner who does not want to have sex or participate in sex they do not want to. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between empathy, decisional conflict, and participating in or perpetrating unwanted sex. Results demonstrated that both factors had significant relationships with students participating in sex either they or their partner did not want to have. Those students with high empathy and high decisional conflict were less likely to facilitate sex with a partner who did not want to have sex. In addition, there was an interaction effect between decisional conflict and empathy, on facilitating unwanted sex. However, gender identity did not have a significant interaction effect with empathy and its effect on having unwanted sex. This study demonstrates the potential importance of decisional conflict and empathy in college students’ decision making prior to sex. Contrary to previous work, increased decisional conflict led to better decision making.