Viewing time as an objective measure of sexual interest in heterosexual men and women

Abstract

The present study assessed viewing time as a measure of sexual interest in self-identified heterosexual men and women. Participants (N = 106) rated the sexual appeal of sexually provocative pictures while the length of time they spent viewing each picture was unobtrusively measured. As hypothesized, (1) men and women viewed opposite sex pictures significantly longer than same sex pictures, (2) men viewed opposite sex pictures significantly longer than did women, and (3) women viewed same sex pictures significantly longer than did men. Contrary to our prediction, (4) ratings of sexual appeal and viewing time were uncorrelated for either men or women when viewing opposite sex pictures. The results of this study suggest that viewing time is a good measure of categorical sexual interest but a poor measure of within-category sexual interest for heterosexual men and women. The participant sex by picture type interaction noted in both subjective ratings and viewing times was consistent with the literature supporting the idea that men's sexual interest is more strongly category-specific than is the sexual interest of women.