Gender Differences in Sexual Arousal and Affective Responses to Erotica: The Effects of Type of Film and Fantasy Instructions

Abstract

The present study examined men and women's sexual and affective responses to erotic film clips that were combined with different fantasy instructions. Men (n = 29) and women (n = 28) were presented with two types of erotic films (explicit vs. romantic) and two fantasy instructions (fantasizing about one's real-life partner vs. fantasizing about someone else). Genital response, subjective sexual arousal, and affective responses were assessed. Sexually explicit stimuli resulted in larger genital responses; women reported higher subjective sexual arousal than men; and fantasizing about one's partner resulted, overall, in higher subjective sexual arousal and higher levels of positive affect. Moreover, in women, the instruction to fantasize about one's partner resulted in stronger subjective sexual arousal to the explicit film than the instruction to fantasize about someone else. Results suggested that physiological, subjective, and affective responses to erotic film stimuli are impacted not only by stimulus characteristics but also by the viewer's interpretation of the depicted relationship.

Alcohol Increases Delay and Probability Discounting of Condom‐Protected Sex: A Novel Vector for Alcohol‐Related HIV Transmission

“…Moreover, we observed only limited sensitivity of the SADI to alcohol administration with only scores on the Negative/Aversive factor (e.g., “restrained,” “anxious,” “frigid”) increasing significantly. Low levels of arousal may have been related to our use of sexual fantasizing, whereas the aforementioned studies have used either erotic vignettes or films, which may produce higher levels of sexual arousal (Carvalho et al, 2013). Third, it is unknown whether the alcohol effects observed in the present study are dose dependent.…”

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships

“…High values were calculated for the correlation of pornography and masturbation representing the sexually arousing effect of sexually explicit material [57, 90–92]. The coefficient for bisexuality and permissiveness shows a more indirect relation, possibly due to the problematic measurement of permissiveness.…”

“…Thus, we had to exclude singles in our final sample, although their attitudes are supposed to align with the same construct. Additionally, attitudes towards several sexuality-related topics such as pornography or masturbation are unequal in men and women [5, 32, 57–59]. These findings imply gender differences in a global concept for sexual attitudes.…”

Procedure to validate sexual stimuli: reliability and validity of a set of sexual stimuli in a sample of young colombian heterosexual males.

“…In fact, Howes -in 1995 or Marshall, Serran and Yates -in 2003 had already pointed out some limitations in standardizing stimuli or methodologies used. Although these limitations are still present Marshall (2014) a series of articles are being produced today which are more methodological in nature (Carvalho et al, 2013;Cerny & Janssen, 2011;Chivers et al, 2010;Trottier, Rouleau, Renaud, & Goyette, 2014) with the aim of gradually improving some of these shortcomings. However, as recalled by Marshall (2014), the phallometry (or rather the stimuli utilized) to date have virtually no psychometric validation.…”