Abstract
We proposed that men and women would be “turned off” by watching men and women like themselves engaged in sexual activity and “turned on” by watching someone of the opposite sex engaged in the same activity. We tested this hypothesis by showing college men and women eight films: films depicting male and female homosexuality, male and female masturbation, and males and females engaged in heterosexual intercourse. We assessed men and women's reactions via the Byrne-Sheffield (1965) Feeling Scale and Griffitt's (1975) Physiological Arousal Scale. We found support for our hypothesis. We also attempted to determine whether men and women differed in how easily they became aroused by sexually explicit films. We found that they did not.
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This research was supported, in part, by University of Wisconsin Graduate School funds and was conducted during the tenure of NIMH Grant MH 26681.
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Hatfield, E., Sprecher, S. & Traupmann, J. Men's and women's reactions to sexually explicit films: A serendipitous finding. Arch Sex Behav 7, 583–592 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541924
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541924