Anxiety, Social Threat, and the Diversion of Sexual Interests

Abstract

Social anxiety appears to quash sexual interest whereas nonspecific anxiety enhances it. We propose that anxiety stemming from heightened social evaluation concerns—when amplified and psychologically decontextualized—can decrease spontaneous interest in intimate sexual interaction while leaving intact or intensifying asocial/idiosyncratic erotic interests. Higher scores on an “erotic diversion risk” index (EDR: social anxiety, sensory processing sensitivity, dissociation in sexual situations) was linked to greater sexual compulsivity. Consistent with our model, higher EDR predicted a lower proportion of intimate versus asocial/idiosyncratic erotic thoughts when social evaluative threat was salient; this relationship was reversed when threat was not salient.

KEYWORDS:

• dissociation
• sensory processing sensitivity
• sexual compulsivity
• sexual interests
• social anxiety