Texas state Rep. and Democratic nominee James Talarico. Photo: Danielle Villasana/Getty Images
The Texas Senate race has become a national laboratory for anti-“woke” politics, testing whether voters still recoil from the language of 2020 amid the economic pain of 2026, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.
Why it matters: Republicans came away from 2024 convinced they had won more than an election — they had broken through on culture, turning Democrats’ progressive language and identity politics into symbols of elite detachment.
The durability of that culture-war coup is now an open question, as the GOP tries to redeploy the same playbook in a far more hostile midterm environment.
Zoom in: Texas has produced a Senate race in which both parties see the other nominee as the perfect caricature of everything voters hate about the opposition.Left: Talarico (DNC via X). Right: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a campaign stop May 15 in Little Elm, Texas. Photo: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
For Republicans: Texas state Rep. James Talarico offers the dream target — a young, viral progressive whose old comments can be stripped of context and turned into a one-man museum of “woke” Democratic excess.
Republicans have seized on Talarico’s 2021 floor speech declaring that “God is nonbinary,” along with past comments on racism, whiteness and trans children, to cast him as a radical disguised as a Texas preacher.
The attacks already are veering into sexuality- and masculinity-coded territory: Talarico’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has mocked him as “Low-T,” while White House adviser Stephen Miller falsely labeled him as Democrats’ “first transgender Senate candidate.
“Talarico has conceded that he “missed the mark” on some “cringey comments,” while insisting his underlying principles — that “racism is immoral and wrong” and that “trans people deserve dignity and equality” — flow from his Christian faith.
For Democrats: Paxton is a scandal-scarred Trump ally whose legal and ethical baggage could turn even a red-state Senate race into a referendum on Republican corruption.
Paxton was impeached by the GOP-led Texas House in 2023 — then acquitted by the Texas Senate — over allegations that he abused his office to benefit a donor.
He spent nearly a decade under indictment on fraud charges before reaching a pretrial deal in 2024. He has been plagued by whistleblower claims, a now-closed federal corruption probe and a very public divorce tied to allegations of adultery.
Talarico’s campaign wants to make Paxton the face of Republican impunity — arguing that his scandals aren’t distractions from the race, but the clearest evidence of what the GOP has become.
The bottom line: Texas will be the ultimate test of whether the GOP’s anti-“woke” strategy can survive the transition from insurgency to incumbency.Share this story.
Relying on reactive willpower to resist constant digital notifications exhausts finite attentional reserves, whereas utilizing proactive control and self-hypnosis preserves cognitive bandwidth to optimize deep flow states. Credit: Neuroscience News
Summary: A comprehensive neurobiological assessment mapped the structural, age-related, and environmental forces driving the modern crisis of human attention. The research details how smartphones and communication platforms intentionally exploit the brain’s evolutionary dopamine-reward pathways, substituting effortful, long-term focus with zero-effort wins.
By dismantling the myth of raw willpower, Stanford experts demonstrate that cognitive sustainability requires structural lifestyle intervention, specifically shifting from reactive resistance to “proactive control,” integrating physiological “bio” breaks, and utilizing self-hypnosis to systematically lock the brain into highly focused “flow” states.
Key Facts
The Dopamine Exploitation Loop: The human brain is evolutionarily wired to scan its environment for quick rewards, a survival mechanism that modern technology actively hijacks. Pings from emails, texts, and social media feeds provide immediate dopamine hits. Once the brain becomes accustomed to these low-effort wins, it struggles to muster the massive metabolic energy required for deep, long-term concentrated thinking.
The Vulnerability of Developing Minds: Attention capacity is not static; it scales dramatically during development. Research tracking response variability shows that attention function improves continuously in children from ages 9 to 18. However, children require strictly protected, distraction-free time—spent reading books, solving mathematics, or playing chess—to build this neural capacity. Conditioning developing brains to zero-effort social media rewards actively cripples their long-term ability to think deeply.
The Reality of Working Memory Decay: In older adults, general memory capacity should not experience a drastic decline simply due to age. “Working memory”, the short-term biological scratchpad used to hold temporary data without writing it down, does experience minor, typical age-related drops, such as slipping from remembering a seven-digit phone number to a six-digit code. Progressive, compounding losses beyond this baseline warrant a formal neurological evaluation.
The Failure of Raw Willpower: Relying purely on grit to block out digital static is a mathematically losing strategy. Every act of resisting temptation actively drains a finite cognitive reservoir. Because modern environments demand constant resistance, willpower reserves are rapidly depleted, leaving the mind exhausted.
Bypassing Temptation via Proactive Control: Instead of training the mind to resist a distraction, Stanford neuroscientists advocate for “proactive control”, the physical removal of the temptation altogether. Simple behavioral shifts, such as moving a smartphone to a different room while working or using application-blocking hardware, drastically lower cognitive friction, returning attentional sovereignty back to the user.
The Physical Mandate for Brain Breaks: Cognitive processing speeds decline without planned downtime. Sleep serves as the ultimate neurological recovery period, necessary to consolidate daily memories and restore the next day’s attentional bandwidth. During waking hours, clinicians recommend taking a 10-minute break for every hour of work. This can be effortlessly forced by consistently drinking water throughout the day, ensuring the body naturally demands movement, stretching, and physical “bio” breaks.
Self-Hypnosis as a Gateway to Flow: Far removed from theatrical tropes, clinical self-hypnosis is a validated method to direct highly focused, immersive attention toward a complex task. By combining somatic visualization with physical relaxation techniques, individuals can enter “flow” states that tune out competitive or environmental background noise. Stanford psychiatrists utilize this protocol to optimize elite athletic performance and enhance deep academic study.
Source: Stanford
News alerts ping your phone. Your watch buzzes, reminding you to stand up. Slack notifications sound on your desktop. And that’s all before you open your email inbox.
The world is constantly vying for our attention and, at least evolutionarily, we’re primed for distraction. But it’s still possible to block out the noise, hone your focus, and concentrate on what’s most important.
“We’re bombarded with information, some of which we want and a lot of which we don’t,” said David Spiegel, MD, the Jack, Lulu, and Sam Willson Professor in Medicine and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “In a world that is painfully distracting most of the time, it’s particularly important to hone your skills to focus on what matters.”
We asked Spiegel and other Stanford Medicine experts why it feels harder than ever to focus – and how we can improve our own ability to concentrate. Here are five key takeaways.
1. It’s not just you – it really is that hard to focus and concentrate
The human brain is wired to detect rewards and, increasingly, our smartphones are wired to dole them out, said Weidong Cai, PhD, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Our brains get a boost – in the form of a dopamine hit – when our smartphones ping us with a new message, for instance.
“We find it rewarding to read new emails, Slacks, a friend’s post, even when they’re not relevant to the task at hand,” Cai said. “Every time you see something fresh, you feel a reward.”
Once the brain becomes accustomed to those easy wins, Cai said, it’s more difficult to perform the effortful, long-term thinking that demands focus and concentration. “You need to put a lot more energy into the actual hard work,” he said.
2. Our attention and memory capabilities change with age
Cai studies response variability – that is, the different lengths of time during which people respond to the same stimuli. Research shows that response variability continually drops in children from ages 9 to age 18, suggesting that attention function improves as children get older.
But, Cai said, children need protected time to develop their attention capacity through activities like reading a book, solving math problems, or playing chess. “If they get used to zero-effort rewards from things like social media,” he said, “they might have difficulty developing the capacity to think longer and deeper.”
For older adults, memory capacity shouldn’t drastically diminish with age, said Sharon Sha, MD, a clinical professor of neurology and neurological sciences and chief for the Memory Disorders Division and the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders.
“Working memory” is the information we can hold in our minds without writing it down. As we get older, it’s typical for working memory to decline slightly – as in, we can’t remember a seven-digit phone number, but can still recall a six-digit passcode, Sha said. If your working memory is consistently getting worse than that over time, she said, talk to your doctor.
3. Willpower alone won’t strengthen your focus
It’s tempting to rely on willpower to keep the relentless distractions at bay. But, Cai said, it’s not that easy. Each exertion of your willpower depletes your attention capacity a bit more. That’s because it takes effort to resist the temptation of distractions – and in today’s world, we have to resist constantly. Eventually our willpower stores get used up.
A better approach is proactive control, Cai said, or keeping the distractions away altogether. “You want to protect time for writing or studying, so you move the smartphone to a different room,” he said. “Instead of training yourself to resist the temptation, it’s better to move the temptation away.”
Proactive control is the idea behind tools like Brick, a device that blocks distracting apps like news websites and social media from your smartphone. “You get to decide what you pay attention to,” Spiegel said, “not what people on the news or apps tell you.”
4. Be sure to build in breaks
Though it might seem counterintuitive, Sha said, taking breaks can be a boon for focus and concentration. “As much as we keep pumping the caffeine” to push through, she said, “our brains do need a break.”
Sleep is the ultimate brain break, Sha said, and studies show that quality sleep leads to better cognitive performance. “Your brain needs that time, not only to consolidate the memories from the day, but also so you can have concentration for the next day,” she said. “It’s going to really diminish your attention if you’re not sleeping.”
Daytime breaks are also crucial, Sha said. She recommended a 10-minute break each hour. “I can’t say I follow that all the time,” Sha admitted. “If it’s not feasible, try to at least block out time for one or two breaks in the morning.”
One way to ensure you take breaks is to drink water throughout the day so your body will demand “bio” breaks, Sha said. A trip to the bathroom, combined with a stretch and some fresh air, can work wonders.
5. Self-hypnosis could lead to “flow” states
Want an out-of-the-box way to hone your focus? Try hypnosis.
Unlike the stylized hypnotizing we’ve seen in the movies, self-hypnosis is a way to direct highly focused attention to a specific task, said Spiegel, who is also director of the Center on Stress and Health, and medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine. Think of it as using the techniques of meditation, like physical sensations and visualization, to put yourself into a “flow” state of immersion during a challenging and rewarding task.
“Hypnosis is about going into this altered state for a purpose: to study better, to control pain,” Spiegel said. “You gain control by choosing what to attend to.”
When the Stanford women’s swim team was swimming faster in practices than in meets, the coach came to Spiegel for help. He discovered that, during meets, the swimmers were focusing too much on their opponents in neighboring lanes. Spiegel trained the team to practice self-hypnosis before meets by picturing how they controlled their bodies as they swim their best race in their minds, ignoring those in the next lanes – and the women swam faster.
Spiegel is co-founder and scientific adviser of Reveri Health Inc., a hypnosis app company. But he said anyone can practice the tenets of hypnosis on their own. Imagine yourself floating (the floating is essential because it makes you feel physically supported and comfortable, and therefore physically relaxed but mentally more focused). In your mind’s eye, picture a task or problem on the left side and a possible solution on the right. Float and focus, he said.
“Focus is a skill, an advantage that we humans have that allows us to determine where and how we deploy our attention,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to prove to ourselves how much control we have over our bodies and our minds.”
Key Questions Answered:
Q: Why does it feel physically and mentally harder to concentrate on deep tasks today than it did years ago?
A: Because your brain’s natural reward system is being systematically outmaneuvered by modern technology. Human biology is hardwired to seek out easy wins, and devices are engineered to constantly deliver them via dopamine-inducing pings, messages, and alerts. Once your brain gets used to receiving these zero-effort rewards every few minutes, it recalibrates its expectations, making the intense, energy-consuming hard work of long-term thinking feel incredibly difficult to sustain.
Q: If trying to force ourselves to focus through pure willpower doesn’t work, what actually does?
A: Shifting from reactive willpower to a strategy called “proactive control”. Willpower is a finite, drainable resource; every single time you force yourself to ignore a buzzing phone, you use up a piece of your daily attention budget. Instead of expending energy trying to resist temptation, the smarter neurological approach is to remove the temptation entirely, such as physically leaving your phone in a completely different room or using tech-blocking tools to curate your environment.
Q: How can a clinical tool like self-hypnosis be used practically to block out distraction and improve focus?
A: By using focused visualization to enter a state of deep, immersive immersion known as a “flow” state. True self-hypnosis is simply a skill that allows you to choose exactly where to deploy your attention while physically relaxing your body. By visualizing yourself floating to induce physical comfort, and picturing your creative challenge on one side of your mind and a solution on the other, you can completely tune out peripheral noise and regain complete control over your mind.
Editorial Notes:
This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
Journal paper reviewed in full.
Additional context added by our staff.
About this neuroscience research news
Author: Christina Hernandez Sherwood Source: Stanford Contact: Christina Hernandez Sherwood – Stanford Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Whatever about a Ukrainian and his alleged espionage in Ireland, you’d be wondering if there will be an investigation under the Official Secrets Act 1963 into the coordinated leak of information held by State departments and bodies to mainstream media to discredit Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick, and whether strings are being pulled by a foreign government (Ukrainian or British).
Employee of Government department charged in court in relation to supplying official information to a foreign intelligence service. Man originally from Ukraine, in Ire since 2002. Arrested at Dublin Airport by Special Detective Unit. Denied bail. Report later on
Warren Buffett emphasizes the importance of communication skills.Getty Images—Alex Wong
Particularly with the advent of AI, strong communication skills have become even more critical to success in business. Even some of the biggest tech- and AI-focused companies in the world are shelling out million-dollar pay packages for people who can lead communications efforts at a high level.
Recommended Video
Warren Buffett’s 5 investing lessons
And it’s a key skill Warren Buffett, one of the most legendary investors in history, firmly believes in.
“You’ve got to be able to communicate in life, and it’s enormously important,” the Oracle of Omaha said during a 2013 interview with Levo League, a career website for young women. “Schools, to some extent, under-emphasize that.”
Early in his career, at age 20, Buffett set out to conquer his fear of public speaking by enrolling in a Dale Carnegie course, which still exists today. Before the public speaking course, Buffett said he and the other students in the class were “terrified of getting up and saying our names.”
But over the course of his 60-year career at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett became a prolific communicator and public speaker. In fact, his voice became one of the loudest in the finance world and had the power to move markets.
“If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential,” Buffett emphasized.
Buffett’s advice still holds up today. An April survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows verbal and written communication skills are at the top of the wishlist for what employers want to see on recent college graduates’ resumes.
Reflecting on his career ahead of his retirement at the end of 2025, Buffett suggested in his final shareholder letter as CEO learning is a lifelong journey.
“It is never too late to improve,” he wrote. “Get the right heroes and copy them.”
What other executives say about the importance of communication skills
“For new employees, it’s a strange initial experience,” he told Fortune. “They’re just not accustomed to sitting silently in a room and doing study hall with a bunch of executives.”
But the art of crafting a memo is even more challenging to master.
“Full sentences are harder to write,” he added. “They have verbs. The paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.”
And as Gen Z enters a workforce dominated by AI, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said it will take more than only mastering technical skills to be successful in today’s job market.
“My advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ [emotional quotient], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write,” Dimon told Fox News in December 2025. “You’ll have plenty of jobs.”
The Fortune 500 Innovation Forum will convene Fortune 500 executives, U.S. policy officials, top founders, and thought leaders to help define what’s next for the American economy, Nov. 16-17 in Detroit. Apply here.
What If Your Brain Used 100% of Its Power? | Sir David Attenborough. What if your brain used 100% of its power? Would humans unlock super intelligence, perfect memory, or abilities beyond imagination? In this human brain documentary, we uncover the truth behind one of the most famous myths in neuroscience — the belief that humans only use 10% of their brains. Inspired by the immersive storytelling style of Sir David Attenborough, this science documentary explores how the brain works, what actually happens inside the human mind, and why the idea of “unlocking” hidden brain power may be far more dangerous than exciting. Through real brain science, neuroscience discoveries, and fascinating psychological insights, we reveal what would truly happen if every neuron in the brain activated at maximum capacity. This neuroscience documentary takes you deep into the mysteries of the human brain, explaining consciousness, intelligence, neuroplasticity, memory, sleep, and cognitive performance in a way that is both entertaining and educational. From seizures and brain myths to the future of AI, Neuralink, and brain enhancement, this is Science Explained in a cinematic documentary experience. If you enjoy mind blowing science, unbelievable science, educational documentaries, and videos inspired by David Attenborough documentaries, this episode from Sleepy Science Lab / Sleepy Science is for you. Whether you’re fascinated by human brain explained content, curious about brain power explained, or simply love learning about neuroscience, this video will completely change the way you think about your own mind. Watch until the end to discover the shocking truth about what would really happen if humans used 100% of their brains — because the answer is nothing like the movies suggest. Subscribe to Sleepy Science Lab for more deep dives into science, the brain, human evolution, psychology, future technology, and fascinating mysteries of the universe.
=================
May 27, 2026☕ Support the channel → https://buymeacoffee.com/sleepyscienc… Fall asleep while learning one hundred dreamy facts about Longevity. From telomeres and mitochondria to Blue Zones and circadian rhythms, this soft and soothing science documentary will guide you through the biology of aging, the secrets of long lived communities, and the everyday habits that shape how we grow older. All told in a calm bedtime voice. Enjoy with no adverts and 432 hz background music for sleep. Perfect for winding down at night, this sleep friendly video blends peaceful narration with fascinating health science to help your mind slow down and drift off. Explore how your cells repair themselves, why sleep and light guide your internal clocks, how muscles and blood vessels protect your future, and what modern medicine is learning about extending healthspan, not just lifespan. 😌 This relaxing science video is ideal for:
Falling asleep to health and longevity science
Listening to aging and lifespan facts at bedtime
Relaxing with a calming science documentary
Gentle nighttime learning for adults
Calm sleep music and ambient science narration
No Ads
432 hertz sleep music
Whether you are curious about aging biology, preventive health, circadian rhythms, or the future of medicine, this video will be your guide through the science of living longer and living well. From the smallest cellular processes to the design of cities that support connection and movement, longevity is a story written across the whole body and the whole life. 🧬 Includes facts about:
Telomeres, epigenetics, and biological age
Mitochondria, autophagy, and cellular repair
Blue Zones and long lived cultures
Sleep, nutrition, and daily habits
Preventive medicine and the future of aging research
Subscribe to The Sleepy Science Channel for more soft, relaxing science documentaries about health, time, space, biology, and the quiet mysteries of the universe. Perfect for learning, dreaming, and letting go.
Video clip of my interview with Prof. Robert Pape, about the long-term damage to the oil infrastructure in the Middle East, and why RECOVERY will take much, much longer than people assume… pic.twitter.com/igxrMVLggi
A collection of features and graduate profiles covering Harvard’s 375th Commencement.
Conan O’Brien brought his absurdist humor to bear Thursday as the principal speaker at Harvard’s 375th Commencement, poking fun at the University’s history and culture while also urging the Class of 2026 to set their sights beyond their academic achievements.
His wish for them, he said, was that one day, their status as Harvard grads might be “the least important thing people know about you.”
“I really understand how much hard work it took for all of you to get to this point,” O’Brien, a 1985 graduate of Harvard College, told the crowd at Tercentenary Theatre. “You should feel enormous pride, just as I did on my Commencement day.”
But a Harvard degree can be double-edged, he added.
“Many people are happy to mistake the lucky poker hand for their own brilliance, and fighting that human instinct has kept me sane.”
“Your real education starts now, with friends you’ve made and friends you get to meet, with stunning successes and miserable defeats, and with a humble acceptance that your greatness comes from the mess around you, not despite it,” O’Brien said.
He was quick to note that he was speaking from deep experience, crediting his own successes to help he’s received from “an infinitely packed clown car of multitudes” — and to luck.In that spirit, he urged his audience to resist the “extreme narcissism” of the times, with pointed reference to U.S. leaders and smartphone-fueled self-absorption.
“Many people are happy to mistake the lucky poker hand for their own brilliance, and fighting that human instinct has kept me sane,” he said. “I honestly believe that community, spontaneity, and a real commitment to humility have helped me build a rich life.”
The comedy legend’s remarks included riffs on recent University news. Thanking President Alan Garber for his stewardship of the graduating class, he said: “Fantastic job, sir. Really nice. Normally, I would give you an A+, but in keeping with upcoming Harvard policy, I’m adjusting your grade to a C-. Trust me, it’s for the good of the school.”
O’Brien touched on the federal government’s ongoing legal battles with the University, joking that he too was suing Harvard for indignities he endured at the College, like the cast-iron bunk bed he slept on as a first-year (“an instrument of divine cruelty”) and his underwhelming dating life.
In his opening address, Garber struck a more solemn note about the political, legal, and academic challenges facing Harvard.
Recalling the University’s long history as a leading light for intellectual inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, he said, “Our cause is just. Our principles are worthy. And our contributions to the common good are vital. This moment demands of us ongoing vigilance and unyielding effort as we continue to defend the University and its ideals.”
He praised students’ embrace of opportunities “to disagree constructively, listen generously, and speak freely” and their finding ways to bring people together in order “to nurture pluralism, mutual respect, and empathy.”
A Brookline native, O’Brien was twice elected president of the Harvard Lampoon. He made his name as an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer for “The Simpsons ” and “Saturday Night Live” in the late 1980s before starring in NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” which ran from 1993 to 2009.
In 2010, he launched a new show, “Conan,” that ran until 2023 on TNT network. He now hosts a popular podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” Last year, O’Brien received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The University conferred O’Brien with a doctor of arts degree, which he accepted on behalf of his late grandfather, a Worcester traffic officer who left school to help support his family in seventh grade. Other honorary degree recipients were Audra McDonald, a Tony Award-winning Broadway actor and singer; conservative political columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan; AI innovator Geoffrey Hinton; and historian Noel Malcolm.
Closing his speech, O’Brien offered students congratulations, “not for any piece of paper you received today, but because of your hard work, determination, humanity, and the boundless community that you have and will create.”
Warning: this article contains distressing quotes from perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
Researchers have long tried to answer the question: why do some men sexually abuse children?
We recently set out to find an answer.
In the largest study of child sexual abuse perpetrators’ accounts ever conducted, we systematically analysed nearly 700 adult male perpetrators’ accounts from 39 studies to document the ways these men account for their actions.
Some startling revelations
The men were aged 18 years and over and came from across the globe – from Norway to New Zealand, Malawi to Brazil. We were interested in documenting what perpetrators’ accounts can tell us about preventing child sexual abuse.
The men’s accounts varied dramatically.Some blamed drugs and alcohol, or their own experiences of childhood maltreatment. Others claimed they were seeking exciting or risky new sexual experiences.
Our mission is to share knowledge and inform decisions.
About us
Others said they were “in love” with or trying to “educate” the child.
The most common way perpetrators explained their behaviour was to cast their victims as consenting participants in the sexual activity.
In especially egregious cases, perpetrators positioned themselves as the hapless casualties of their (mostly female) victims’ devious sexual scheming, describing their young victims as “flirtatious”.
One stated:
she was a little vixen in the whole thing […] I was truly lured in.
Or course, children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults. Importantly, even if the victim had been an adult, the evidence of a child’s “consent” offered by perpetrators was extremely tenuous, usually amounting only to the absence of forceful resistance.
Abuse as revenge
Revenge was another common reason offered to explain the offending. Overwhelmingly, perpetrators nominated their adult women partners as the target of their retaliatory behaviour.
In short, they abused a child to get back at the child’s mother.
Perpetrators sought revenge because their adult women partners failed to adhere to traditional femininity and to fulfil the role of romantic/sexual partner and/or mother/homemaker to the perpetrator’s standard and preferences.
As one perpetrator stated:
There was a few times that I molested [my stepdaughter] out of being mad […] at [my wife for] […] not cleaning the house. Letting the dog shit on the floor and nobody cleaning it up.
In perpetrators’ accounts, adult women partners were expected to provide sexual interaction exclusively to the perpetrator when, where and how the perpetrator desired.
In some instances, perpetrators claimed they were driven to perpetrate child sexual abuse due to their desire for specific sexual acts or forms of bodily presentation that their adult partners declined to enact.
Anger and so-called rights
Perpetrators sometimes framed the child victim as deserving the abuse, claiming their offending resulted from anger toward the child.
For instance, perpetrators felt angry because their victims failed to meet “feminine” norms or did not display sufficient submissiveness. For example, one perpetrator said:
She wasn’t being a nice little girl, that a perfect little girl is supposed to be.
Crucially, men’s reasons for feeling anger toward the child victim(s) echo the same tropes that underpin their anger toward adult women.
Perpetrators commonly invoked their “right” to sexual activity to explain their offending and bemoaned a lack of sexual access to adult partners.
Moreover, perpetrators framed children as sexually compliant and constantly sexually available, again highlighting their sense of entitlement to sex and lack of concern that children can’t consent.
Compared with prior studies, we found a more frequent and pronounced emphasis on patriarchal thinking in perpetrators’ accounts.
Researchoften suggests men sexually abuse children due to “marital conflict” or “domestic discord”.
However, this interpretation appears sanitised against perpetrators’ own accounts, which often vigorously emphasise their rage and retaliatory reasoning alongside an unwavering sense of male sexual entitlement.
Perpetrators’ focus on child victims’ supposed “consent” is instructive here. In sexual encounters with adult women, men position partners as “gatekeepers” – as responsible for resisting their advances if they do not consent.
While this relates to men’s beliefs about adult women, men in our study commonly viewed women and children as a combined category of subordinates.
Indeed, many of the perpetrators in our study collapsed the distinction between girls and adult women, stating for example:
I felt a need for […] sexual satisfaction and that required a female.
Better education and policy is crucial
Our findings therefore highlight the need for policymakers and practitioners to strengthen efforts to combat misogyny, male sexual entitlement and patriarchal privilege.
Challenging rape myths (false beliefs about sexual violence, those who perpetrate it, and those affected by it) and rape myth acceptance (the acceptance of these false beliefs) remains critical.
While such measures are typically targeted at preventing sexual violence against adult women, our analysis suggests they may also help prevent child sexual abuse.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
Kelly RichardsProfessor, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Emma HusseySessional Academic, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Disclosure statement
Kelly Richards is on the national board of the Bravehearts Foundation. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Emma Hussey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence.Republish this article
Together we have influence
We know our work has influence with decision makers all around the world because we see it cited in policy papers and journals all the time. Thousands of people like you already back us by making a regular donation each month. In these uncertain times, they see the value of our unique media model. One that is driven by facts – not clicks. Together we can keep all the vital expert analysis we publish free for everyone to read and share. Will you back us too?
Texas state Rep. and Democratic nominee James Talarico. Photo: Danielle Villasana/Getty Images
Left: Talarico (DNC 
canisgallicus 