Transcript Sex on the Brain?

Sex on the Brain?
An Examination of Frequency of Sexual Cognitions as a
Function of Gender, Erotophilia, and Social Desirability
From Journal of Sex Research by Terri D. Fisher, Zachary T. Moore, and
Mary-Jo PittengerDepartment of Psychology, The Ohio State University at
Abstract
It is a common belief that males think about sex
more than females, yet there is not much evidence to
support this
In this study 283 college students were asked to keep
a tally of how often they thought about sex, food,
and sleeping for one week
Erotophilia and sexual desirability responding were
significant predictors of frequency of sexual
cognitions for women, but not for men.
Sexual Cognition
As explained by Renaud and Byers, sexual cognition
refers to…
• “fleeting sexual thoughts or images,
more elaborate and ongoing sexual
fantasies, sexual thoughts that are
experienced as intrusive and sexual
thoughts and fantasies that are
engaged in deliberately”
Gender, Erotophilia and
Social Desirability
Erotophilia: Describes sexuality on a personality scale.
Erotophiles express less guilt about sex, talk about sex more
openly, hold more positive attitudes toward sexually explicit
material, have sex more frequently and with more partners over
time. In contrast, erotophobes are less likely to talk about sex,
have more negative reactions to sexually explicit material, and
have sex less frequently and with fewer partners over time.
(Wikipedia)
Social Desirability: The tendency of respondents to answer
questions based on what they believe is a more socially desirable
answer. Subject to social influence, culture, religious affiliation,
etc.
Summary of Existing
Literature
Inconsistent statistics with frequency of sexual cognitions for
males and females (some said there were large differences,
some said small, some said none at all)
Research for these statistics generally relies on estimates rather
than qualitative evidence
Only kept track of sexual cognition, not any thoughts relating
to any other physiological needs such as eating or sleeping
Therefore it is unknown whether the increase in frequency of
thoughts is solely related to sexuality or if males just have more
thoughts about physiological needs in general
The Study
Focused on college students “because this is the most common
sample used in previous research and because college students are
at an age when the largest sex differences might be expected”
163 Females and 120 Males
Between ages of 18-25 (M=19)
Asks participants to use a golf tally, which is small, portable, and
easy to click when a thought arises
Splits participants into groups, some to tally their sexual thoughts,
some to tally their thoughts of sleep, and the others to tally their
thoughts of food
59 (27 male and 32 female) assigned to track thoughts about food
61 (21 male and 40 female) assigned to track thoughts about sleep
163 (72 male and 91 female) assigned to track thoughts about sex
**(88.3% identified themselves as white and 96.1% as heterosexual)
The Hypotheses
More sexual thoughts from males than females
Women could either report much less about food
thoughts due to social pressure to not eat as much or
they could be very honest about having more food
thoughts because of pressures leading to restrained
eating
Males may report more sexual thoughts due to wellknown stereotype that men think about sex more
than females
Results
“Men’s and women’s retrospective estimates of
sexual cognition frequency were similar in range,
with a daily maximum of 50 for both sexes, but the
median estimate for men was five thoughts per day
compared to the median of three thoughts per day
for women. The average daily tally counts revealed
greater differences in range, with the maximum for
men being 388 compared to 140 for women. The
median daily tally count for men was 18.6 compared
to a median of 9.9 for women.”
“Thus, using the tally counter, men reported more
need-related cognitions overall, regardless of
whether they were related to food, sleep, or sex,
which is somewhat different than the popular
stereotype that men think primarily about sex.”
Critical Comments
We found the study to be much more accurate than previous studies
because it took all physiological need thoughts into account to
determine whether or not males had sexual thoughts more frequently
than females
However, while the choice to use a sample group of traditional college
students made sense in the fact that they may provide the most sex
difference, the results may also be skewed because it is during those
years that people experience the highest spouts of hormonal
acceleration.
Furthermore, in time of college, the need-related thoughts of food and
sleep are also usually more prominent in students mind.
Also, by allowing the participants to self report their thoughts, there is
still room for them to manipulate how often or infrequent they had
those thoughts, or if they had a thought and forgot to tally it. If there
was some piece of technology that could tally their thoughts without
the participant having to do it themselves, that may provide the best
results.
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvPCJ5fkzwQ