Sex differences in memory for erotica

Abstract

The research investigates how the sexes differ in their memory for sexual stones. Twenty males and 20 females read a story describing a heterosexual encounter. The story contained romantic, erotic, and neutral elements. Memory was tested via a recognition test. As hypothesised, there were significant Subject Sex by Sentence Content interactions for both recognition accuracy and decision time. Women were better and faster at identifying romantic sentences: Men were better and faster at identifying erotic sentences. The sexes did not differ in responding to neutral sentences. The research illustrates the utility of the memory bias paradigm in the domain of sexuality.