Viewing sexual images is associated with reduced physiological arousal response to gambling loss.

Ming Lui,Ming Hsu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0195748

Ming Lui, Ming Hsu

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195748

Copy DOI

Abstract

Erotic imagery is one highly salient emotional signal that exists everywhere in daily life. The impact of sexual stimuli on human decision-making, however, has rarely been investigated. This study examines the impact of sexual stimuli on financial decision-making under risk. In each trial, either a sexual or neutral image was presented in a picture categorization task before a gambling task. Thirty-four men made gambling decisions while their physiological arousal, measured by skin conductance responses (SCRs), was recorded. Behaviorally, the proportion of gambling decisions did not differ between the sexual and neutral image trials. Physiologically, participants had smaller arousal differences, measured in micro-siemen per dollar, between losses and gains in the sexual rather than in the neutral image trials. Moreover, participants’ SCRs to losses relative to gains predicted the proportion of gambling decisions in the neutral image trials but not in the sexual image trials. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that the presence of emotionally salient sexual images reduces attentional and arousal-related responses to gambling losses. Our results are consistent with the theory of loss attention involving increased cognitive investment in losses compared to gains. The findings also have potential practical implications for our understanding of the specific roles of sexual images in human financial decision making in everyday life, such as gambling behaviors in the casino.

Highlights

In the past decades, the role of emotions in choice behaviors has been a hot topic in the decision-making research community
Thirty-one out of the 34 participants rated over 80% of the sexual images as sexy and over 80% neutral images as neutral
An alternative possibility is that the positive emotions triggered by sexual stimuli, which were associated with release of endogenous opioids [26], led to a euphoric state among the participants, which may in turn buffer against the negative emotional arousal triggered by gambling losses

Summary

Introduction

The role of emotions in choice behaviors has been a hot topic in the decision-making research community. Sexual desire creates one of the strongest motivations for human behaviors, along with other appetitive functions in the brain [1]. Few studies have examined how sexual stimulation influences human decision-making behaviorally and physiologically. In a study by Ariely and Loewenstein (2006) [2], men in a sexually aroused state had a higher tendency to accept unsafe sex and morally questionable behaviors. Another field study [3] showed that

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion