Eye-tracking does not reveal early attention processing of sexual copulatory movement in heterosexual men and women

TL;DR

Eye-tracking showed no significant differences in how men and women process sexual movement cues, suggesting similar early attention patterns.

Contribution

A novel eye-tracking method was developed to study attention to sexual copulatory movement in heterosexual individuals.

Findings

Attention bias effects were small and statistically insignificant.

No gender-specific differences in attentional capture were observed.

Copulatory movement does not drive gender-nonspecific responses in women.

Abstract

Men and women respond differently when presented with sexual stimuli. Men's reaction is gender-specific, and women's reaction is gender-nonspecific. This might be a result of differential cognitive processing of sexual cues, namely copulatory movement (CM), which is present in almost every dynamic erotic stimulus. A novelty eye-tracking procedure was developed to assess the saliency of short film clips containing CM or non-CM sexual activities. Results from 29 gynephilic men and 31 androphilic women showed only small and insignificant effects in attention bias and no effects in attentional capture. Our results suggest that CM is not processed differently in men and women and, therefore, is not the reason behind gender-nonspecific sexual responses in women.

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