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Unconscious Desire: The Affective and Motivational Aspects of Subliminal Sexual Priming

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Abstract

Sexual arousal is thought to be the result of the processing of sexual cues at two levels: conscious and unconscious. Whereas numerous studies have examined the affective and motivational responses to supraliminal (consciously processed) sexual cues, much less is known regarding the responses to subliminal (processed outside of one’s awareness) sexual cues. Five studies examined responses to subliminal sexual cues. Studies 1–3 demonstrated increases in adult’s positive affect following exposure to subliminal sexual cues compared to control cues. Study 4 demonstrated that the positive affect resulting from exposure to subliminal sexual cues increased motivation to further engage in a neutral task. Study 5 provided evidence suggesting that the affect and motivation found in Studies 1–4 were associated with motivation to engage in sex specifically, rather than a general approach motivation. The implications of these findings for the processing of subliminal sexual cues and for human sexuality are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Only participants with prior heterosexual sexual experiences were included in these studies. We chose to use this population because we believe they would be able to better relate to the other-sex sexual images rather than perceive them as unclear or threatening/disgusting. Also, all participants were naïve, i.e., they only participated in one of the five studies.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd., Rm 518, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7556, USA

    Omri Gillath

  2. Department of Psychology, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA

    Tara Collins

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  1. Omri Gillath
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  2. Tara Collins
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Correspondence to Omri Gillath.

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Gillath, O., Collins, T. Unconscious Desire: The Affective and Motivational Aspects of Subliminal Sexual Priming. Arch Sex Behav 45, 5–20 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0609-y

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