Self-attractive men tend to overestimate women’s sexual interest based on their high mating success; self-unattractive men tend to underestimate women’s sexual

Mechanism of the association between men’s self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception: the mediating paths of positive and negative mating efficacies. Zhenlan Yang & Lijun Zheng. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Feb 21 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2022.2033968

Abstract: At the core of sexual assault is a misunderstanding of sexual consent, and incorrect sexual interest perception is a misunderstanding of other people’s sexual consent. Therefore, it is important to examine the mechanism of sexual interest perception to prevent instances of sexual assault. In order to explore the relationship and mechanism between self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception, this study explored the relationship between self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception from the perspectives of positive mating efficacy (mating confidence and self-esteem) and negative mating efficacy (perceived rejection experiences from the opposite sex, rejection sensitivity, and social anxiety). Four hundred and three heterosexual male subjects participated in this study (age in years: M = 26.4, SD = 6.1). The results showed that mating confidence and negative mating efficacy, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between self-perceived attractiveness and the sexual interest perception. The findings indicated that those with high self-perceived attractiveness overestimated sexual interest and those with low self-perceived attractiveness underestimated sexual interest.

Lay Summary: In general, men tend to overestimate the sexual interest from opposite-sex under the ambiguous condition. Especially, self-attractive men tend to overestimate women’s sexual interest based on their high mating success. However, self-unattractive men tend to underestimate women’s sexual interest based on their being rejected experiences or fear of being rejected in mating condition.

Keywords: self-perceived attractivenesssexual interest perceptionmating confidenceself-esteemrejection sensitivitysocial anxiety