80 undergraduates read a shortened journal article that used either neutral or negative terms to describe a number of cases of sexual relationships between male adolescents and male adults. Additionally, students were exposed either to descriptive information or descriptive plus long-term non-negative outcome information. The purpose of this manipulation was to examine whether students would process the neutral and positive data in a biased fashion, because these data contradict strongly held assumptions of harm as a consequence of sexual contacts between adults and children/adolescents. Subjects' judgments were negatively biased by the negative terminology. The Subjects also exhibited evidence for biased processing of the non-negative outcome information.