"Research indicates that exposure to pornography increases male subjects' acceptance of violence against women, significantly increases men's sexual callousness, decreases their compassion for women as rape victims, increases their propensity to trivialize rape, and increases their aggression against women."

--Michelle Anderson, in The Price We Pay, 129.

"...new social science research is demonstrating the traumatic impact of hate speech. For example, a study by the Prejudice Institute in North Carolina shows that hate speech causes serious psychological and physiological damage to people who have been the targets. Similarly, new research proves the negative social and psychological consequences of pornography. These include the desensitization of men to women's pain, higher willingness to rape, and more sexist attitudes toward women and girls."

--Laura J. Lederer, "Freedom of hate speech too costly," Star Tribune, 31 May 1995.

Laura J. Lederer is a research fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School where she directs the Center on Speech, Equality and Harm.