The Moderating Effect of Hypersexuality on the Relationship Between Psychopathic Traits and Sexual Coercion

Being sexually coerced can have long-lasting psychological impacts on victims; with perpetration strongly predicted by elevated psychopathic traits. Owing to recent legislative developments in the United Kingdom that criminalize coercive control under the Domestic Abuse Act (2021), this study offers a timely investigation into the mechanisms of sexual coercion in domestic abuse across sexual abuse and coercive control. We used moderation analysis (n = 405) to investigate whether sexual coercion was predicted by psychopathy (specifically the factor one components, which encompasses interpersonal and affective characteristics), and whether this relationship was moderated by facets of hypersexuality. Of such facets, sadism and sadomasochism significantly moderated the positive association between factor one psychopathy and sexual coercion in males (but not females), but masochism and sex drive had no such moderating effect. Results are discussed in terms of identifying risk factors of sexual coercion and international application. Open data and a preprint of this paper are available at [https://osf.io/xkcah/?view_only=134ff9c93ad24ba286515b348ce79c0c].