Sex differences in response to erotica? Love versus lust.

The current research examined gender differences in response to varying erotic themes. In Experiment 1, unmarried male (n — 30) and female (n = 32) subjects viewed an erotic film portraying petting; this film was prefaced with instructional sets that established either a love theme (affectionate marital sex) or a lust theme (unemotional sex with a prostitute). In Experiment 2, 36 married couples viewed either a petting erotic film or one depicting coitus; these films were prefaced with instructional sets that established either the love or lust themes or a casual-sex theme (a chance sexual encounter). Arousal, affective, and evaluative responses to these stimuli were assessed. Results of Experiment 1 confirmed the effectiveness of the thematic manipulation and indicated that males and females were not differentially responsive to the love or lust themes along any of the response dimensions. Results of Experiment 2 replicated this finding and indicated that both men and women were more sexually aroused by the casual-sex theme than by those involving love or lust. Apparently, romantic or affectional emphasis is not a precondition for female arousal by erotica. Methodological and conceptual issues relating to the discrepancy between the often-cited female indifference to erotica and the present findings for equal male-female arousal responses are discussed.