Men's enjoyment of explicit erotica: Effects of person‐specific attitudes and gender‐specific norms

Through three studies, we examined how person‐specific sexual attitudes and gender‐specific sexual norms influence men's erotica enjoyment (operationalized as self‐regulated viewing of erotic slides). In Study 1, men viewed more erotica than did women, supporting a gender‐typing interpretation that legitimizes erotica enjoyment for men but condemns it for women. In Study 2, gender was a situational variable; men viewed erotica while alone, with a female co‐participant, or with a male co‐participant. As expected, female (but not male) presence inhibited men's enjoyment, suggesting that the female presence was associated with negative sentiments about erotica. In Study 3, the co‐participants explicitly expressed either a positive or negative sentiment about pornography. As predicted, only these expressed sentiments influenced erotica enjoyment; the gender‐based norms were no longer salient. Overall, the findings suggest that erotica enjoyment is a gender‐typed behavior and that a man's enjoyment is influenced by both predisposition and normative situational cues.