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Effects of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Ratings of Implicitly Erotic Art

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Abstract

Women’s perceptions of and responses to explicitly erotic stimuli have been shown to vary across the menstrual cycle. The present study examined responses to implicit eroticism. A total of 83 women provided reactions to paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe in 6 day intervals over the course of 1 month. Among freely cycling women (n = 37), 31% of their descriptions included sexual themes during the first half of their cycle, dropping to 9% of descriptions in the second half. In women using oral contraceptives (n = 46), there was no significant difference in descriptions across the cycle (13% in the first half vs. 17% in the second half). Results were discussed in terms of evolutionary psychology and social-cognitive perspectives on the relationships between hormonal fluctuations and sexuality.

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Notes

  1. These analyses are available from the corresponding author upon request.

  2. These analyses are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, PA, 18104, USA

    Jeffrey M. Rudski, Lauren R. Bernstein & Joy E. Mitchell

Authors
  1. Jeffrey M. Rudski
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  2. Lauren R. Bernstein
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  3. Joy E. Mitchell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey M. Rudski.

Appendix

Appendix

Call for Participants

Thank you for your interest in our study. If you choose to participate, you will be sent five e-mails over the next month (approximately 6 days apart), each containing a link to an online survey.

Each survey contains images of three paintings. You will be asked to write down your thoughts and feelings about each painting. We will also be asking you to provide information on any daily stressors or hassles you’ve encountered in the day or so before filling out each survey. The final survey will also ask several demographic questions, any of which you may choose not to answer.

In order to keep your responses anonymous, we ask that you create a personal code which you will provide in each survey. By doing this, we will be able to keep track of responses from individuals but will not know who specifically they came from. Make this code something that you will remember but that does not identify you in any way. Please write down the code in a safe place. It is crucial that you include the code each time or we will not be able to use your data.

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Rudski, J.M., Bernstein, L.R. & Mitchell, J.E. Effects of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Ratings of Implicitly Erotic Art. Arch Sex Behav 40, 767–773 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9756-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9756-y

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