Empathic sexual responses in heterosexual women and men

Abstract

2008) Empathic sexual responses in heterosexual women and men, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 23:4, 325-344, Two distinct empathic sexual responses have been mentioned anecdotally in the literature: (1) an increase in physiological sexual arousal in response to the sexual arousal of the partner (empathic turn-on) and (2) a decrease in physiological sexual arousal in response to lack of sexual arousal in the partner (empathic turn-off), but to our knowledge this is the first systematic study of the phenomenon. There were 722 women and 415 men who participated in the anonymous computer survey. Of the total of 1137 participants, 90.5% agreed that they had experienced empathic turn-on, 69.1% agreed that they had experienced empathic turn-off, 64.4% agreed that they had experienced both empathic turn-on and turn-off and only 4.7% had experienced neither, w 2 (1, n ¼ 1137) ¼ 19.484, p 5 .001. Sexual satisfaction of participants was significantly lower at the levels of partner's orgasm likelihood below 0.5 than above 0.5 in both men and women when analyzed separately. Both men and women were more likely to express multiple or sustained orgasms (instead of single orgasms) with a good partner than while masturbating. Empathic sexual responses can modulate the sexual arousal of both men and women by increasing sexual arousal when the partner is aroused and decreasing sexual arousal when the partner is not sexually responsive.

The human female orgasm: critical evaluations of proposed psychological sequelae

“…Also, partner context predicts orgasmic functioning in women. Specifically, multiple orgasms are more likely with sexual partners than masturbating alone (Haning et al, 2008), orgasm is less likely to occur during a one-night stand (Eschler, 2004) and orgasms occurring with partners are Sexual and Relationship Therapy 317 less genetically heritable than those occurring during masturbation (Dawood, Kirk, Bailey, Andrews, & Martin, 2005). The context of the orgasm should not affect its efficacy in decreasing the likelihood of subsequent sexual behaviors if orgasms are invariant, satiety inductions.…”

Pre-arousal aversive clitoral sensitivity during sexual relations: exploratory research consisting of the first case report and correlates from an anonymous survey

“…Haning, 2005;Haning et al, 2007Haning et al, , 2008O'Keefeet al, 2009;Stroebelet al, 2010) presented to participants as a ''cradle to the grave study on human sexuality'' to allow respondents to reveal whether they experienced the specific sequence of events described in the case report. The hypotheses to be tested were formulated based on the clinical information obtained from the presented case and our attempts at empathically understanding how the differences in perception would impact other women with PACS and their partners.…”

“…Box 11081, Charleston, WV 25339) and many of its items used for the present study have been described and validated (Bickham et al, 2007;Haning, 2005;Haning et al, 2007Haning et al, , 2008O'Keefe et al, 2009;Stroebel et al, 2010).…”

“…After restriction of the data set to eliminate women who lacked coital experience, women who were transsexual and women who were not heterosexual based on adult sexual behavior and responses to cognitive screening items (Haning, 2005, p. 13;Haning et al, 2007Haning et al, , 2008, there were 764 women who met all of the above criteria to be included as participants. Only one of these 764 selected choice (5) ''I have a clitoral injury from disease, surgery, trauma, or a congenital problem that causes pain'' data for the multiple choice item to ascertain clitoral response to partner-touch.…”

Orgasmic Bodies

“…One explanation for this could be the idea of 'empathetic sexual arousal' -becoming more aroused in empathy with the heightened arousal of a partner. Haning et al (2008) argue that the ability to perceive the feelings of another person is one of the most fundamental aspects of empathy. Over 90% of the 1177 young male and female participants in their study agreed that 'I find that it is a turn-on for me when my sex partner is really sexually excited'.…”