Supposedly, high levels of sexual arousal can promote sexual willingness and approach tendencies toward a priori low attractive mates; these authors did not see such lowering of standards

The Influence of Sexual Arousal on Self-Reported Sexual Willingness and Automatic Approach to Models of Low, Medium, and High Prior Attractiveness. Charmaine Borg,Aleksandra Pawłowska,Robin van Stokkum,Janniko R. Georgiadis &Peter J. de Jong. The Journal of Sex Research, Nov 15 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1687641

ABSTRACT: Anecdotal evidence suggests that sexual attraction is flexible, and that high levels of sexual arousal can promote sexual willingness and approach tendencies toward a priori low attractive mates. This experimental study tested whether heightened sexual arousal can lower the threshold for sexual willingness and automatic approach tendencies toward potential sex partners of low and medium attractiveness. Heterosexual male (n =54) and female (n =61) participants were randomly assigned to a sexual arousal or control condition. Approach tendencies were indexed using a reaction time task. Sexual willingness was indexed using participant ratings of willingness to kiss and to consider having sex with same- and other-sex models of low, medium, and high attractiveness. Overall, participants showed stronger approach to models of high and medium than of low attractiveness. Sexual arousal weakened this differential responding but did not result in a robust increase of approach toward less attractive other-sex or same-sex models. Sexual willingness toward less attractive models was not affected by sexual arousal. Independent of condition, women reported greater sexual willingness toward same-sex models. The current pattern of findings does not support the notion that sexual arousal promotes automatic approach and sexual willingness to a broader array of sex partners.

Discussion

The main purpose of this study was to investigate possible factors
that may promote the increase in breadth of sexual responding. In
order to examine the influence of sexual abstinence on breadth of
sexual responding, we attempted to manipulate the amount of
sexual activity in a selected group of participants. However, since
a substantial proportion of those participants did not manage to
abstain from sexual activity during the assigned period of time, the
effects of sexual abstinence could not be adequately tested. Thus, in
the current study, we tested whether sexual arousal would promote
automatic (reflexive/impulsive) approach tendencies toward pictures of men and women in provocative poses as well as individuals’ self-reported (reflective) willingness to kiss or have sex with these pictured men and women. In addition, we tested whether
such impact would generalize to less attractive stimuli and/or to
same-sex stimuli, and whether the pattern of automatic approach
tendencies and sexual willingness would differ between men and women.

The main findings can be summarized as follows: (i) Overall,
automatic approach tendencies and sexual willingness were
greater for stimuli of medium and high attractiveness than toward
stimuli of low attractiveness; (ii) This differential pattern of automatic approach as a function of stimulus attractiveness was attenuated by sexual arousal manipulation; (iii) There was no robust
evidence to suggest that sexual arousal increased automatic
approach tendencies to models of low attractiveness or same-sex
models; (iv) Moreover, self-reported willingness to kiss and to
consider having sex with the models was higher for models of
high attractiveness and did not seem to be influenced by the sexual
arousal manipulation; (v) Women reported higher sexual willingness to same-sex models than men, and showed stronger variability in reported willingness to kiss and to consider having
sex as a function of stimulus attractiveness than men.


Sexual Arousal Effects

Consistent with previous research showing increased automatic approach to positively valenced stimuli (e.g., Chen & Bargh, 1999; Krieglmeyer, Deutsch, De Houwer, & de Raedt,
2010), participants in the current study generally showed
stronger automatic approach toward relatively attractive stimuli. This differential pattern was slightly attenuated by sexual arousal manipulation. Specifically, approach behavior
toward other-sex stimuli of low and high attractiveness was
more similar among sexually aroused participants than among
control participants, suggesting that induced sexual arousal
increased automatic approach tendencies toward stimuli of
low attractiveness and decreased these approach tendencies
toward stimuli of high attractiveness. This effect is somewhat
consistent with our hypotheses. However, considering its
small effect size (ηp2 = 0.03), as well as lack of a clear-cut
main effect of sexual arousal manipulation, it remains to be
tested whether this represents a robust finding.
Moreover, sexual arousal manipulation did not affect either
of the sexual willingness measures. That is, against our
hypotheses, sexual arousal manipulation did not result in
a general increase in willingness to kiss or to consider having
sex with other- and same-sex stimuli, nor in a specific
increase toward same-sex stimuli or toward stimuli of low and
medium attractiveness. Thus, it seems that under laboratory
conditions, sexual arousal induced by means of erotic videos
was ineffective in amplifying the attractiveness of less physically attractive stimuli or same-sex stimuli to a degree that would increase automatic approach tendencies and selfreported sexual willingness related to the models depicted in
these stimuli. Previous research using self-stimulation at
home (Ariely & Loewenstein, 2006), or erotic audio narratives
(Imhoff & Schmidt, 2014) and pornographic film clips
(Skakoon-Sparling et al., 2016) in the lab to increase sexual
arousal, provided evidence that heightened sexual arousal
increased self-reported willingness to engage in uncommon
or risky sexual activities. The current findings indicate that
the impact of sexual arousal does not generally extend to
lowering the threshold for the automatic approach and sexual
willingness toward individuals of low a priori attractiveness.
Despite the fact that there was more potential for an increase
in willingness to have sex with less attractive same-sex stimuli,
especially in men, no such effect was observed. Therefore, the
current findings provide no support for the view that the state
of sexual arousal promotes widening of the array of sexual
stimuli that participants are sexually attracted to by strengthening the motivation to satisfy one’s sexual needs (Ariely & Loewenstein, 2006; Imhoff & Schmidt, 2014; Kringelbach &
Rolls, 2004).


Gender Effects

In line with our predictions, female participants were found to
be more willing to kiss and to consider having sex with
female, rather than male, stimuli of medium attractiveness.
Female participants were equally willing to kiss and to consider having sex with male and female stimuli of low attractiveness. In contrast, male participants were consistently more
willing to kiss female than male stimuli across all attractiveness levels. Thus, in agreement with previous theoretical and empirical works (Baumeister, 2000; Diamond, 2008; SavinWilliams & Ream, 2007), as well as our predictions, female
participants were characterized by a greater breadth of subjective sexual responding than male participants, as indicated by their equal willingness to kiss and to consider having sex
with both male and female models of low and medium attractiveness. In contrast, the breadth of subjective sexual responding of male participants was generally small, in the sense that
men were uniformly more willing to kiss and to consider
having sex with female rather than with male models, regardless of their attractiveness. No generally accepted explanation
exists for the observed sex differences, with researchers proposing that various evolutionary and sociocultural influences may be at play (e.g., Baumeister, 2004; Buss & Schmitt, 1993;
Simpson & Gangestad, 1992). Regarding sociocultural influences, some point to the fact that there is generally a greater social acceptance toward non-heterosexual expression of
female than male sexuality (e.g., Herek, 2002). Thus, perhaps
the observed gender effects reflect the fact that same-sex
sexual behavior among women is viewed as more socially
acceptable than the same behavioral expression among men.
It is also noteworthy that female participants showed no
differential preference for male and female stimuli of low
attractiveness but seemed to prefer female stimuli of medium
attractiveness over male stimuli of the same attractiveness,
while expressing preference for male stimuli of high attractiveness over female stimuli of high attractiveness. A positive sexual response can generally be expected to occur in response
to the preferred (gendered) stimuli. Yet, sexual orientation
can be comprised of multiple dimensions e.g., sexual activity
preference, age, nurturance, etc. (Chivers & Brotto, 2017).
Thus, it could be that the highly attractive stimuli were
appraised differently than those of medium and low attractiveness on one or more of those dimensions, increasing the salience of gendered preference for sexual stimuli. To arrive at
firmer conclusions concerning the nature of response specificity in men and women, more research into sociocultural gender roles, as well as the cognitive and affective systems
governing the processing of sexual stimuli, is needed.
Men and women showed some differences with regard to
their pattern of automatic approach behaviors toward sexual
stimuli of low, medium, and high attractiveness. This differential pattern seemed to be mainly driven by a relatively strong inclination of women to avoid stimuli of low attractiveness. Low value mates, such as those depicted in the stimuli of low attractiveness, can induce feelings of (sexual)
disgust (Tybur et al., 2009), an emotion associated with strong
avoidance tendencies (Tybur, Lieberman, Kurzban, &
DeScioli, 2013). Women tend to be more prone and sensitive
to disgust experiences than men (Grauvogl et al., 2015; Haidt,
McCauley, & Rozin, 1994), and thus, the behavioral avoidance
away from the sexual stimuli of low attractiveness observed
among women might have been driven by sex differences in
disgust sensitivity.