Sexual Arousal Patterns of Women: A Test of Alternative Hypotheses

女性的性唤起模式：替代假设的检验

• 批准号: 2604607
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Essex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2604607
• 关键词: Sexual; Arousal; Patterns; Women; Test

Unlike men's, women's sexuality is understudied and not taken as seriously by science and society (Chivers, 2016). It was only recently acknowledged that women's sexuality is profoundly different (Bailey, 2009): Most women, including heterosexual women, are sexually aroused to both genders, whereas most men are aroused to one preferred gender. This has been demonstrated with genital vasocongestion and pupil dilation to sexual videos showing males or females (Rieger et al., 2015).A prominent proposal for women's unique sexual arousal patterns is that forced copulation happened throughout human evolution, and the pressure for women to protect against genital injury was so strong that they have evolved to respond to any sexual stimulus with arousal and lubrication, even if the stimulus is subjectively un-arousing (Suschinsky & Lalumière, 2011). This evolutionary hypothesis has been challenged in one study assessing lubrication - a methodology that is rarely used but could revolutionise our understanding of women's sexual arousal. In that study, women only lubricated to their subjectively preferred sexual videos but to no other kind of sexual videos, which questions the validity of the hypothesis (Sawatsky, Dawson, & Lalumière, 2018).Furthermore, the evolutionary hypothesis ignores other potential reasons for women's bisexual arousal patterns. Sex differences in sexual arousal could be attributed to sex differences in empathy. As women have a greater affective empathy, on average, compared to men (Stuijfzand et al., 2016), they may be more likely to share the emotional state of females shown in sexual videos and experience the sexual arousal with them. Moreover, women, more than men, depend on their physical appeal when competing for mates, and are therefore more distressed by physically attractive rivals (Buunk & Fisher, 2009). Thus, women may be aroused from stress by viewing attractive rivals in sexual videos, and this stress coincidentally triggers physiological sexual arousal. In Study 1, I will examine the evolutionary hypothesis in 270 men and women with different sexual orientations by measuring their genital vasocongestion and pupil dilation (with penile gauges, vaginal probes, and eye trackers) to sexual videos showing males or females. I will also assess their subjective arousal and, importantly, women's lubrication (via litmus strips) to each video. Sexual videos will include narratives that describe the actor either as a caring lover or a person seeking non-consensual sex (no such acts will be shown), to test whether women respond sexually, including lubrication, to all sexual videos, even if these are subjectively unpleasant. Study 2 will use the same participants as Study 1. Participants' selfreported empathy and intrasexual competition (both in general, plus specifically towards the actors in the videos) will be assessed alongside measures of sexual arousal, to examine whether women's bisexual arousal pattern is due to sex differences in empathy and intrasexual competition. Such sex differences could be found even if the evolutionary hypothesis is not supported, and therefore offer powerful alternative explanations. Study 3 will also test sex differences in empathy, competition, and sexual arousal, but outside the lab via an online experiment that includes manipulations of participants' empathy and competition in order to examine causality and the generalisability of findings.Advanced Quantitative Methods will be used in the collection of large data sets, mix-factorial regressions, multiple imputations, and mediation analyses on boot-strapped samples. The proposed research will have an impact on the study of female sexual arousal by scrutinising a prominent but hardly tested evolutionary hypothesis, and by potentially providing evidence for alternative explanations. Thus, this research can increase our understanding of female sexuality.

与男性不同，女性的性行为没有得到充分研究，科学和社会也没有认真对待（Chivers，2016）。直到最近才承认，女性的性行为是完全不同的（Bailey，2009）：大多数女性，包括异性恋女性，对两种性别都有性唤起，而大多数男性对一种首选性别有性唤起。这已经用生殖器血管充血和瞳孔扩张对显示男性或女性的性视频进行了证明（Rieger等人，关于女性独特的性唤起模式的一个突出的建议是，强迫交配发生在整个人类进化过程中，女性保护生殖器免受伤害的压力是如此强大，以至于她们已经进化到对任何性刺激做出唤起和润滑的反应，即使刺激主观上是不唤起的（Suschinsky & Lalumière，2011）。这一进化假说在一项评估润滑作用的研究中受到了挑战--这种方法很少使用，但可能会彻底改变我们对女性性唤起的理解。在这项研究中，女性只对她们主观偏好的性视频进行润滑，而不对其他类型的性视频进行润滑，这对该假设的有效性提出了质疑（Sawatsky，Dawson，& Lalumière，2018）。此外，进化假说忽略了女性双性恋唤醒模式的其他潜在原因。性唤起的性别差异可以归因于共情的性别差异。平均而言，与男性相比，女性有更大的情感同理心（Stuijfzand等人，2016），他们可能更有可能分享性视频中女性的情绪状态，并与她们一起体验性唤起。此外，女性，比男性，在竞争伴侣时更依赖于他们的身体吸引力，因此，对身体有吸引力的对手更痛苦（Buunk & Fisher，2009）。因此，女性可能会因观看性视频中有吸引力的对手而被压力唤醒，这种压力恰好触发了生理性唤起。在研究1中，我将通过测量270名具有不同性取向的男性和女性的生殖器血管充血和瞳孔扩张（使用阴茎测量器，阴道探针和眼动仪）来检查进化假说，以显示男性或女性的性视频。我还将评估他们的主观性唤起，重要的是，女性的润滑（通过石蕊试纸）到每个视频。性视频将包括将演员描述为关怀情人或寻求非自愿性行为的人的叙述（不会显示此类行为），以测试女性是否对所有性视频做出性反应，包括润滑，即使这些视频主观上令人不快。研究2将使用与研究1相同的受试者。参与者自我报告的同情心和性内竞争（一般来说，加上特别是对视频中的演员）将与性唤起的措施一起评估，以检查女性的双性恋唤起模式是否是由于同情心和性内竞争的性别差异。即使进化假说不被支持，这种性别差异也可以被发现，因此提供了强有力的替代解释。研究3还将测试在同理心、竞争和性唤起方面的性别差异，但在实验室之外，通过一个在线实验，包括对参与者的同理心和竞争的操纵，以检查因果关系和结果的普遍性。高级定量方法将用于收集大数据集、混合因子回归、多重插补和自举样本的中介分析。这项拟议中的研究将对女性性唤起的研究产生影响，因为它将仔细研究一个突出但几乎没有经过检验的进化假说，并可能为其他解释提供证据。因此，这项研究可以增加我们对女性性行为的理解。