Gender-specificity of Initial and Controlled Visual Attention to Sexual Stimuli in Androphilic Women and Gynephilic Men, 2013-14 [Canada]

Research across groups and across methods consistently finds a gender difference in patterns of specificity of genital response; however, empirically supported mechanisms to explain this difference are lacking. The information-processing model of sexual arousal posits that automatic and controlled cognitive processes are requisite for the generation of sexual responses. Women's gender-nonspecific response patterns may be the result of sexual cues that are common to both preferred and nonpreferred genders capturing attention and initiating an automatic sexual response, whereas men's attentional system may be biased towards the detection and response to sexually-preferred cues only. In the present study, we used eye tracking to assess visual attention to sexually-preferred and nonpreferred cues in a sample of androphilic women and gynephilic men. Results support predictions from the information-processing model regarding gendered processing of sexual stimuli in men and women. Men's initial attention patterns were gender-specific, whereas women's were nonspecific. In contrast, both men and women exhibited gender-specific patterns of controlled attention, although this effect was stronger among men. Finally, measures of attention and self-reported attraction were positively related in both men and women. These findings are discussed in the context of the information-processing model and evolutionary mechanisms that may have evolved to promote gendered attentional systems.

不同群体与不同研究方法的相关研究均一致发现，生殖器反应特异性模式存在性别差异，但目前仍缺乏经实证支持的机制来解释这一差异。性唤起信息加工模型（information-processing model of sexual arousal）提出，自动与控制性认知过程是产生性反应的必要条件。女性的性别非特异性反应模式，可能源于同时存在于偏好性别与非偏好性别中的性线索捕获了注意力并触发自动性反应；而男性的注意力系统则可能仅偏向于对性偏好性线索的探测与反应。本研究采用眼动追踪技术，对爱慕男性的女性与爱慕女性的男性群体中，被试对性偏好线索与非偏好线索的视觉注意力进行评估。研究结果支持性唤起信息加工模型关于男女对性刺激的性别化加工的预测：男性的初始注意力模式具有性别特异性，而女性的则不具备特异性。与之相对，男性与女性均表现出控制性注意力的性别特异性模式，不过该效应在男性群体中更为显著。最后，在男性与女性群体中，注意力测量结果与自我报告的吸引力感知均呈正相关。本研究结合性唤起信息加工模型，以及可能演化形成的、用于塑造性别化注意力系统的进化机制，对上述研究结果进行了讨论。