The point of nipple erection 3: Sexual and social expectations of women with nipple erection.

Abstract

If nipple erection signals/is a cue to sexual interest or arousal, we would expect that women with nipple erection would be sexualized: having a presumed higher sexual arousal and promiscuity and lower mental abilities and morality. To examine this, 234 participants rated pictures of women with and without salient nipple erection (faces were obscured to eliminate facial cues). Participants completed a hypothetical sexual behavior profile (30 items including perceptions of morality and intelligence) for each stimulus photo. Both men and women perceived women with nipple erection as less intelligent, less moral, and more likely to engage in sexual behaviors. These are the primary markers of sexual objectification. They also rated these women as having poorer sexual health and being less sexually manipulative. Men perceived all the women in the stimulus photos as being less moral and having more male sexual partners, indicating that men objectified the stimuli overall more than women. Women reported that women with erect nipples had more male sex partners, lost their virginity at a younger age, and had lower quality relationships. In summary, female nipple erection, which is an uncontrollable reflex, triggers sexualization and objectification by both men and women who observe it.

The point of nipple erection 4: Male nipple erection engenders similar emotions as female nipple erection but triggers different altruistic reactions and sexual expectations.

“…Many of these results stand in stark contrast with the results of Burch and Widman (2022b) with women as the stimuli. They found that stimuli women were rated as less moral, more likely to engage in a variety of sexual behaviors, and less likely to be sexually manipulative.…”

“…Both sexes in this study rated the men with nipple erection as more manipulative and more moral than those without. Burch and Widman (2022b) found similar patterns, but the opposite results examining female nipple erection; women with nipple erection were rated as less moral and less sexually manipulative. While this may seem counterintuitive, the items comprising the morality category included a reverse-coded “shame” item, so that men and women who were less ashamed of their sexual histories were scored as higher in morality.…”

“…As Burch and Widman (2022b) argue, perceiving someone as less intelligent, less moral, and more likely to engage in sexual behaviors are the hallmarks of sexualization and sexual objectification. Based on these criteria, men with nipple erection are not objectified as they are only seen as less intelligent; they were seen as more moral than men without nipple erection and the perceived frequency of sexual behaviors was not different.…”

“…Given these findings, Burch and Widman (2022b) found men and women perceived women with nipple erection as less intelligent, less moral, and more likely to engage in sexual behaviors; these are the primary markers of sexual objectification (Glick et al, 2005; Gurung & Chrouser, 2007; Heflick et al, 2011; Loughnan et al, 2010). In line with women seeing these women as sexual rivals, women perceived all of the women in the stimulus photos as more sexually manipulative than men and rated women with nipple erection as having lower quality relationships.…”

“…But until very recently, little research had been published on how nipple erection is perceived by others. Burch and Widman (2021, 2022a, 2022b), in three studies, explored how female nipple erection was viewed by both men and women. However, as they mentioned in each study, no research has been done regarding responses to male nipple erection.…”