Research
Currently, I am most active in research focusing on the influence of alcohol on sexual behavior. My work emphasizes the view that both alcohol expectancy theory and alcohol myopia theory are useful frameworks for understanding post-drinking sexuality. Grounded in these theories, my colleagues, students and I conduct laboratory-based experiments examining the potentially disinhibiting effects of alcohol on sexual perception, sexual aggression, and HIV/AIDS related sexual risk taking. Typically, these experiments involve assessment of individual differences including alcohol expectancies and drinking motives, administration of beverages, presentation of sexual or sexually aggressive stimuli, and assessment of sexual outcomes, such as arousal, perception, and likelihood of risk-taking. We presently have several manuscripts in preparation or under review, reporting findings from recently completed experiments. In a series of papers, we report that acute alcohol intoxication influences sexual risk-taking decisions during a hypothetical encounter. In another series of papers, we report that acute intoxication also influences women’s reactions to a hypothetical date rape.
Another primary interest area focuses on how cultural factors and racial stereotypes interact with the above topics. For example, I am interested in how racial stereotypes influence sexual perceptions and victim-blaming in alcohol-related sexual assaults. In an earlier paper (George & Martinez, 2002), we found more victim-blaming about interracial than intraracial rapes. In two papers being prepared, we report that sexual perceptions differ based on the race of the characters depicted in a first-date scenario and based on the characters’ alcohol consumption. These data have intensified my interest in racial stereotypes about sexuality and the perceptual consequences of such stereotypes.
My secondary areas of interest include theories and therapies pertaining to addictions – especially Relapse Prevention applications; sex offenders; and the adult sexuality of survivors of child sexual abuse. We continue to find that prior child sexual abuse affects how women respond to laboratory situations involving sexuality – both sexual assault and sexual risk-taking situations. We are investigating this finding in further depth.
Education
- March 10, 2022 William George and graduate student Neil Gleason received a research award from UW's Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute
- September 28, 2021 Neil Gleason received a three-year, $138,108 NRSA Training award from the NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
- August 6, 2014 Congratulations to Hollie Granato, who recently received a grant from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
- September 20, 2012 William George and Kelly Davis received a Notice of Award which will fund their project on Women’s HIV Risk: Alcohol Intoxication and Sexual Victimization History for another five years.
- March 16, 2009 Kelly Koo completed her general exam on March 5, 2009.
- April 11, 2008 The UW Clinical Psychology program has received a number 1 ranking (tied with UCLA and Wisconsin) in the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of more than 200 graduate programs.
- August 11, 2004 Kim Barrett and Bill George’s new book, "Race, Culture, Psychology and Law," was released in July.
- George, W. H., Davis K. C., Masters, N.T., Jacques-Tiura, A. J., Heiman, J. R., Norris J., Gilmore, A. K., Nguyen, H. V., Kajumulo, K.F., Otto, J.M., & Andrasik, M. P. (2014). Sexual victimization, alcohol intoxication, sexual-emotional responding, and sexual risk in heavy episodic drinking women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43, 645-658.