Sexual and emotional variables influencing sexual response to erotica

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the relative contribution of attention and emotional responses to the sexual response to erotica. Self reported levels of sexual arousal, attention, and emotional responses were measured after 20 men and 20 women viewed a series of erotic film segments. Men and women reported greater sexual arousal to erotica when they became absorbed in the activities portrayed in the film and when they experienced the erotic encounters as appetitive, than when they were distracted and perceived the encounters as aversive. Subjective sexual arousal also correlated positively with the degree to which subjects experienced entertainment and curiousity to the erotic film segments, but negatively with boredom. The level of sexual arousal reported by subjects did not correlate significantly with trait measures of absorption (as indexed by the Tellegen Absorption Scale) and vividness of imagery (as assessed by the Betts Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery). The multidimensional nature of the sexual response was demonstrated by the fact that the magnitude of subjective sexual arousal was predicted by the separate groupings of state assessed attentional and emotional variables, trait indexed absorption and appetitive feelings, and demographic information. These findings applied to both men and women, with the exception that men experienced greater sexual arousal than women, and women reported more disgust to the stimulus materials. Future directions for studying the basis for differences in sexual arousal between men and women are outlined, with an emphasis on a psychophysiological exploration of these phenomena.