title: Sexual arousal: the correspondence of eyes and genitals.
abstract: Men's, more than women's, sexual responses may include a coordination of several physiological indices in order to build their sexual arousal to relevant targets. Here, for the first time, genital arousal and pupil dilation to sexual stimuli were simultaneously assessed. These measures corresponded more strongly with each other, subjective sexual arousal, and self-reported sexual orientation in men than women. Bisexual arousal is more prevalent in women than men. We therefore predicted that if bisexual-identified men show bisexual arousal, the correspondence of their arousal indices would be more female-typical, thus weaker, than for other men. Homosexual women show more male-typical arousal than other women; hence, their correspondence of arousal indices should be stronger than for other women. Findings, albeit weak in effect, supported these predictions. Thus, if sex-specific patterns are reversed within one sex, they might affect more than one aspect of sexual arousal. Because pupillary responses reflected sexual orientation similar to genital responses, they offer a less invasive alternative for the measurement of sexual arousal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Essex, United Kingdom. Electronic address: gerulf@essex.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gerulf
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rieger
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, United States.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Cash
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, United States.
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, United States.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jones-Rounds
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, United States.
authors.forename: Sanjay Muralidharan
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dharmavaram
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, United States.
authors.forename: Ritch C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Savin-Williams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007989:Libido / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology*; D057566:Self Report; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Genital arousal; Pupil dilation; Sex differences; Sexual orientation