Sex Differences in Attention and Attitude Toward Infant and Sexual Images.

Autor: Steiner ET; Department of Psychology, National University, 9388 Lightwave Ave., San Diego, CA, 92123, USA. tsteiner@nu.edu., Young SM; School of Social Science and Global Studies, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Archives of sexual behavior [Arch Sex Behav] 2023 Nov; Vol. 52 (8), pp. 3291-3299. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 25.
DOI: 10.1007/s10508-023-02676-6
Abstrakt: Reproduction in mammals includes two general categories of behaviors: mating and parenting. Historically and cross-culturally, men invest more than women in mating; women invest more than men in parenting. Sex differences in attention and attitude toward mating and parenting stimuli have rarely been assessed together despite theoretical interest. To evaluate these differences simultaneously in a naturalistic setting, 582 study participants (459 women, 123 men) were presented with sexual and infant images, online in the privacy of their home, at three time periods spanning several weeks for a more reliable result. Attention was measured by covertly recording viewing time of images using Qualtrics software, and attitude was measured via self-report after each viewing session. Men reported a more positive attitude than women toward the sexual images; women reported a more positive attitude than men toward the infant images. Women viewed the infant images marginally longer than did men, and the infant-to-sexual viewing ratio was larger for women. The sexual-to-infant viewing ratio was larger for men than for women. Unexpectedly, both genders viewed the sexual images longer than the infant images, with no significant gender difference in the sexual image viewing time. The results suggest that women and men may give equal attention to visual sexual stimuli despite self-reported sex differences in interest. The possibly underestimated valence of visual sexual stimuli for women is discussed.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: