Milani Sonia, Zhang Jia Yu, Zdaniuk Bozena, Bogaert Anthony, Rieger Gerulf, Brotto Lori A
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia.
Department of Health Sciences, Brock University.
J Sex Res. 2023 Feb;60(2):271-281. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2022.2078768. Epub 2022 Jun 8.
Asexuality has garnered much attention, and empirical data support its classification as a sexual orientation. Asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to others, with approximately 1% of the population falling in this category. As theoretical models situate attention as a central component of sexual response, the current study examined attentional processing of erotic stimuli in asexuals and heterosexuals. We hypothesized that heterosexual participants would have initial and controlled visual attention patterns favoring erotic images over non-erotic images. We predicted that asexual participants would have significantly smaller or non-existent differences in attention to erotic versus non-erotic images. Ninety-five adults completed an eye-tracking task viewing erotic and non-erotic images. Eye-tracking data showed no group differences in initial attention to erotic images. For controlled attention, there was a large effect size in the hypothesized direction. Heterosexual participants exhibited more and longer fixations on erotic images, whereas asexuals exhibited a more even distribution of attention across image types. Exploratory analysis of group differences in the association between visual attention and ratings of sexual attractiveness revealed a complex pattern of differences, with some indication of a stronger association between total fixation and sexual attraction for heterosexual participants. These findings suggest that differences in attention to sexual stimuli may represent key underlying differences between asexual and allosexual orientation. Findings also contribute to the larger literature on visual attention and attraction.
无性取向已引起广泛关注，实证数据支持将其归类为一种性取向。无性取向被定义为对他人缺乏性吸引力，约1%的人口属于这一类别。由于理论模型将注意力视为性反应的核心组成部分，本研究考察了无性恋者和异性恋者对色情刺激的注意力加工。我们假设异性恋参与者在初始和控制性视觉注意模式上会更倾向于色情图像而非非色情图像。我们预测无性恋参与者对色情图像和非色情图像的注意力差异会显著更小或不存在。95名成年人完成了一项观看色情和非色情图像的眼动追踪任务。眼动追踪数据显示，两组在对色情图像的初始注意力上没有差异。对于控制性注意力，在假设方向上有较大的效应量。异性恋参与者对色情图像的注视更多、持续时间更长，而无性恋者对不同类型图像的注意力分布更为均匀。对视觉注意力与性吸引力评分之间关联的组间差异进行的探索性分析揭示了一种复杂的差异模式，有迹象表明异性恋参与者的总注视时间与性吸引力之间的关联更强。这些发现表明，对性刺激的注意力差异可能代表了无性取向和有性取向之间的关键潜在差异。研究结果也为关于视觉注意力和吸引力的更广泛文献做出了贡献。
