Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2026 Jan 6.
doi: 10.1007/s10508-025-03344-7. Online ahead of print.

A Threat Management Approach to Explaining Women's Aversive Rape Fantasies

Domenic P Roberto  1 , Marina Morris  1 , Melissa M McDonald  2
Affiliations

A Threat Management Approach to Explaining Women's Aversive Rape Fantasies

Domenic P Roberto et al. Arch Sex Behav. .

Abstract

Sexual rape fantasies are commonly reported among women. Rape fantasies can range anywhere from violent, forceful encounters to seduction fantasies where the fantasizer is coerced by an attractive partner. Although rape fantasies often contain aversive content, research tends to broadly conceptualize sexual fantasy as a universally pleasurable experience. The current research explored the possible function of aversive rape fantasy in women, hypothesizing that such fantasies are part of the output of a threat management system for rape avoidance. The fantasy is argued to function as a form of mental rehearsal wherein more realistic and forceful rape fantasies provide the fantasizer a low-cost, high-reward method for simulating and preparing for a potential future attack. Results of an online survey study indicated that women's fear of rape was positively associated with the presence of aversiveness in rape fantasies, but not other types of fantasies, when controlling for the eroticism of women's rape fantasies and other types of fearfulness. Women's history of sexual assault was also positively associated with the aversiveness of their rape fantasies-a relationship that was mediated by women's fear of rape. These findings are consistent with the threat management system model and may imply that women who are more vulnerable to victimization are more fearful of rape and therefore engage in mental rehearsal of possible rape encounters through aversive rape fantasies as a means of defensive vigilance against potential future assaults.

Keywords: Aversive rape fantasy; Fear of rape; Rape fantasy; Sexual assault; Threat management system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: This research was reviewed and approved by the Oakland University Institutional Review Board. Conflicts of interest: Not applicable.

References

    1. Andrews, P. W., & Thomson, J. A. (2009). The bright side of being blue: Depression as an adaptation for analyzing complex problems. Psychological Review, 116(3), 620–654. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016242 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Bivona, J., & Critelli, J. (2009). The nature of women’s rape fantasies: An analysis of prevalence, frequency, and contents. Journal of Sex Research, 46(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490802624406 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Campbell, A. (2013). The evolutionary psychology of women’s aggression. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society B. Biological Sciences, 368(1631), 20130078. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013/0078 - DOI
    1. Camuso, J., & Rellini, A. H. (2010). Sexual fantasies and sexual arousal in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 25(3), 275–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2010.494659 - DOI
    1. Chivers, M. L. (2017). The specificity of women’s sexual response and its relationship with sexual orientations: A review and ten hypotheses. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(5), 1161–1179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0897-x - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources