Pupil Dilation to Explicit and Non-Explicit Sexual Stimuli

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10508-016-0801-8&domain=pdf

Web End = Arch Sex Behav (2017) 46:155165 DOI 10.1007/s10508-016-0801-8

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10508-016-0801-8&domain=pdf

Web End = SPECIAL SECTION: THE PUZZLE OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Pupil Dilation to Explicit and Non-Explicit Sexual Stimuli

Tuesday M. Watts1 Luke Holmes1 Ritch C. Savin-Williams2 Gerulf Rieger1

Received: 3 November 2015 / Revised: 24 February 2016 / Accepted: 27 June 2016 / Published online: 15 August 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Abstract Pupil dilation to explicit sexual stimuli (footage of naked and aroused men or women) can elicit sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. If similar patterns were replicatedwithnon-explicitsexualstimuli(footageofdressedmen and women), then pupil dilation could be indicative of automatic sexualresponseinfullynoninvasivedesigns.Weexaminedthisin 325 men and women with varied sexual orientations to determine whetherdilationpatternstonon-explicitsexualstimuliresembled those to explicit sexual stimuli depicting the same sex or other sex. Sexual orientation differences in pupil dilation to non-explicit sexual stimuli mirrored those to explicit sexual stimuli. However,the relationshipofdilationtonon-explicitsexualstimuli with dilation to corresponding explicit sexual stimuli was modest, and effect magnitudes were smaller with non-explicit sexualstimuli than explicit sexual stimuli. The prediction that sexual orientation differences in pupil dilation are larger in men than in women was conrmed with explicit sexual stimuli but not with non-explicit sexual stimuli.

Keywords Pupil dilation Sexual arousal

Sexual orientation Sex differences

Introduction

Sexual orientation is a critical motivational drive that inuences humansinformingromanticandsexualrelationships,mating,and reproduction(Rahman&Wilson,2003).Despitethisrelevance, various recommendations exist regarding how to assess sexual orientation in a reliable and valid manner (Chivers, Seto, Lalumire, Laan, & Grimbos, 2010; Korchmaros, Powell, & Stevens, 2013; Sell, 1997). Although self-report measures are the most common, because of the stigma associated with nonheterosexualorientations,self-reportscan,insomecases,beambiguousor distorted if participants are not able or willing to fully disclose theirsexualorientation(Friedmanetal.,2004;Herek,2004;Ragins, Singh, & Cornwell, 2007). Some research has therefore focused on anautomaticcorrelateofsexualorientation,genitalarousal,whichis notaffectedbythecognitivelimitationsofself-report(Janssen, Prause, & Geer, 2007; Seto, Lalumire, & Blanchard, 2000). It has been argued that in certain cases where self-report does not match genital response, then the latter might, in fact, be the more accurateindicatorofsexualorientation(Bailey,2009).Withmeasures such as penile strain gauges and vaginal plethysmographs, effects of sexual orientation on genital response, and sex differences in these effects of sexual orientation, have been repeatedly described (Bailey, 2009; Huberman & Chivers, 2015; Rieger et al., 2015a; Suschinsky & Lalumire, 2011).

Yet, a considerable disadvantage of genital arousal measure-mentisitsinvasiveness(Strassberg&Lowe,1995),whichmakes manypeopleoptout of suchexperiments(Chivers,Rieger,Latty, & Bailey, 2004;...