Category-Specificity In Viewing Time Among Heterosexual Women:Is This Sexual Interest?

A number of studies have indicated that sexual interest tends to be more category-specific in heterosexual men than in heterosexual women—that is, women’s sexual arousal and sexual interest tend to equally target both sexes, whereas heterosexual men’s sexual arousal and sexual interest tend to strongly target women. These conclusions are based in part on studies of genital arousal that indicate that heterosexual men tend to be much more aroused by sexual images of women than by sexual images of men, while heterosexual women tend to be equally aroused by sexual images of both sexes. Further evidence comes from studies of the viewing times of sexual stimuli. For instance, in one study, heterosexual men viewed female pictures significantly longer than they did male pictures, whereas heterosexual women did not demonstrate any difference in viewing times between male and female pictures. Viewing time as a possible measure of sexual attraction in heterosexual women likely assesses more than just sexual interest and may be affected by physical appearance social comparison. The objectives of the present research were to determine whether women’s viewing times for female pictures were entirely the result of sexual interest, and to explore the influence of social comparison of physical appearance on heterosexual women’s category-specificity in sexual interest.Study 1 was designed to test whether heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures are entirely the result of sexual interest. If it is so, we predicted that greater the attractiveness of stimuli(lower WHRs) and sexual interest(in ovulatory phase) are associated with greater visual attention responses(e.g., more time spent viewing pictures with female pictures). Thus, we recorded heterosexual women’ viewing times for pictures of both sexes, measured menstrual cycle as a potential explanatory variable, and manipulated the waist-to-hip ratio(WHR) of the women in the female pictures. We found that women viewed female pictures with WHRs of.68 and.89 significantly longer than female pictures with WHRs of.74. In addition, women in the ovulatory phase of their menstrual cycle viewed the male pictures significantly longer than women in the luteal phase and there was no difference in viewing times for female pictures between women in the ovulatory phase and those in the luteal phases. So, it is safe to draw a conclusion that factors other than sexual interest would affect heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures.In Study 1, we demonstrated that heterosexual women’s viewing time towards female pictures was not entirely the result of sexual interest. Thus, it is reasonable to question exactly what factors other than reported sexual attraction would be related to heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures. In Study 2, we explore another possible explanation for differences in heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures, namely the influence of physical appearance social comparison. In Study 2, we recorded heterosexual men and women viewing times and self-reported sexual attraction to pictures of males and females; we also measured physical appearance social comparison. We found that heterosexual men were more category-specific than heterosexual women in their sexual interest—that is, men viewed female pictures significantly longer than they did male pictures, whereas women tended to split their attention more evenly between pictures of the two sexes. Moreover, the results also revealed that physical appearance social comparison affected heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures and did not influence men’s viewing time patterns.The combined results from Studies 1 and 2 suggest that factors other than sexual interest, such as psychical appearance social comparison, would affect heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures. In addition, we found category-specificity in sexual interest only among women in the ovulatory phase. Thus, given that there are limitations in using viewing time as a measure of sexual interest, it seems logical to speculate that these findings may differ when different measures of sexual interest are used; specifically, it may be that with different measures heterosexual women may demonstrate category-specificity in sexual interest. In Study 3, we applied the dot-probe paradigm to explore category-specificity in visual attention. We found that both heterosexual men and women are category-specific in visual attention. Both sexes reacted significantly more quickly when probes were on the side of the opposite sex pictures than on the side of the same sex pictures.We found that heterosexual women’s viewing times for female pictures were associated with sexual interest and psychical appearance social comparison. Our results also suggest that the use of viewing time as a possible adjunct measure of aesthetic, emotional, or sexual interest in appetitive stimuli(especially for heterosexual women) be subject to rigorous study and used with caution.