A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal
Abstract
Sexual arousal is category-specific in men; heterosexual men are more aroused by female than by male sexual stimuli, whereas homosexual men show the opposite pattern. There is reason to believe that female sexual arousal is organized differently. We assessed genital and subjective sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in women, men, and postoperative male-to-female transsexuals. In contrast to men, women showed little category specificity on either the genital or the subjective measure. Both heterosexual and homosexual women experienced strong genital arousal to both male and female sexual stimuli. Transsexuals showed a category-specific pattern, demonstrating that category specificity can be detected in the neovagina using a photoplethysmographic measure of female genital sexual arousal. In a second study, we showed that our results for females are unlikely to be explained by ascertainment biases. These findings suggest that sexual arousal patterns play fundamentally different roles in male and female sexuality.
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Previous research has not shown female sexual orientation to predictably alter an individual's physiological response to sexual stimuli.
“Although previous research has not shown female sexual orientation to predictably alter an individual’s physiological response to sexual stimuli (73-75)”
From Effects of Mindfulness Training on Body Awareness to Sexual Stimuli: Implications for Female Sexual Dysfunction (2011) · cites this paper as [75]
The physiological exclusion criterion is similar to that used by other researchers and yielded exclusion of eight participants, typical of circumferential measurement of erectile response.
“The physiological exclusion criterion is similar to that used by other researchers [36,37] and yielded the exclusion of eight participants, which is typical of circumferential measurement of erectile response [38].”
From Acute Effects of Nicotine on Physiological and Subjective Sexual Arousal in Nonsmoking Men: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial (2008) · cites this paper as [36]
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van Anders, S. M. (2015) · Archives of Sexual Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10508-015-0490-8 · Cited by 651 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Chivers, M. L., Rieger, G., Latty, E., & Bailey, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chivers, Meredith L.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-11
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 736-744
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2166246062
- Cited by
- 534
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 47 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 39 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 11.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1r03hd041770-01)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03-HD41770-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Sexual function and dysfunction studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Keywords
- sexual arousal, category specificity, sex differences, female sexual arousal, male-to-female transsexuals, neovagina, genital arousal, subjective arousal, sexual orientation, homosexual women, heterosexual women
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Arousal, Female, Homosexuality, Humans, Libido, Male, Photic Stimulation, Sensitivity and Specificity, Sexual Behavior, Sex Factors, Transsexualism, Photoplethysmography
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