Men perceive sexual images quite differently than women; some of this difference may be due to sex differences in to disgust, in particular, disgust related to pathogen avoidance

Predictors of perceptions of sexual images. Jessica Hehman, Catherine Salmon. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: Much of the debate over pornography has focused on whether it is inherently degrading toward women. Previous work has examined this question through content analysis of heterosexual and homosexual pornography, demonstrating no significant differences between these two genres (other than the sex of the participants). However, the question remains that some individuals perceive pornographic images differently than others and some evidence suggests that men perceive such images quite differently than women. Some of this difference may be due to sex differences in to disgust, in particular, disgust related to pathogen avoidance. There is a large literature that focuses on how pathogen avoidance has shaped human behavior from political ideology to in-group/outgroup behavior to sexual risk taking/avoidance. This study examined sex differences in perceptions and how they are influenced by the emotional context of the image as well as participant variables including disgust sensitivity, mate value, and sexual behaviors and attitudes. Males tend to have more positive perceptions of female sexual images whereas females tend to have more positive perceptions of male sexual images. The exception being when there is a negative emotional context in the male sexual images. Further analyses predicting perceptions and their implications will be discussed.