Department of Psychology, Whittier College, California 90608, USA.
J Sex Marital Ther. 2011;37(3):165-75. doi: 10.1080/0092623X.2011.560529.
Research on sexual arousal and erotica has focused primarily on men and women's responses to erotic films and stories designed for a sex-specific audience. To reduce the confounds of relying on separate materials when evaluating sex differences in arousal, the present study designed suggestive and explicit erotic stories that were rated as being equally appealing to men and women. Participants were 212 undergraduate students who completed self-report measures of sexual self-esteem, sexual desire, and pre- and posttest measures of arousal. As hypothesized, women in the suggestive and explicit conditions reported a significant increase in sexual arousal; however, only men who read the explicit story demonstrated significant elevations in arousal. The creation of "equally appealing" erotic stories has challenged the existing research paradigm and has initiated the investigation of sexual arousal from a set of common materials designed for both sexes. The benefits of creating a series of equally appealing erotic materials extends beyond empirical research and may ultimately facilitate greater openness and communication between heterosexual couples.
性唤起和色情文学的研究主要集中在男性和女性对专为特定性别受众设计的色情电影和故事的反应上。为了减少在评估性唤起中的性别差异时依赖于单独材料的混淆，本研究设计了暗示性和明确的色情故事，这些故事被评为对男性和女性同样有吸引力。参与者是 212 名本科生，他们完成了性自尊、性欲望的自我报告测量，以及性唤起的前后测测量。正如假设的那样，暗示和明确条件下的女性报告了性唤起的显著增加；然而，只有阅读明确故事的男性表现出性唤起的显著升高。“同样吸引人”的色情故事的创作挑战了现有的研究范式，并开始从一套为两性设计的共同材料中研究性唤起。创作一系列同样吸引人的色情材料的好处不仅限于实证研究，最终可能会促进异性恋夫妇之间更大的开放和沟通。
