Examining Attentional Biases Elicited by Sexual Stimuli Using MouseView.js: An Online Paradigm to Mimic Eye Movements

ABSTRACT

Attention is a key mechanism underlying many aspects of sexuality, with eye-tracking studies revealing that attention is both sustained by sexual stimuli and corresponds with sexual interest. Despite its utility, eye-tracking experiments typically require specialized equipment and are conducted in a laboratory setting. The overarching objective of this research was to assess the utility of a novel online method, MouseView.js, for assessing attentional processing of sexual stimuli outside of a laboratory context. MouseView.js is an open-source, web-based application where the display is blurred to mimic peripheral vision and an aperture is directed using a mouse cursor to fixate on regions of interest within the display. Using a discovery (Study 1, n = 239) and replication (Study 2, n = 483) design, we examined attentional biases to sexual stimuli among two diverse samples with respect to gender/sex and sexual orientation. Results revealed strong attentional biases toward processing sexual stimuli relative to nonsexual stimuli, as well as dwell times that correlated with self-report sexuality measures. Results mirror those observed for laboratory-based eye-tracking research, but using a freely available instrument that mirrors gaze tracking. MouseView.js offers important advantages to traditional eye-tracking methods, including the ability to recruit larger and more diverse samples, and minimizes volunteer biases.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank our research assistants Yana Svatko and Sohrab Ghassemieh for their assistance throughout the project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Approval

The University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board approved all procedures for this study.

Data Availability Statement (Data Transparency)

The data that support the findings of this research are available on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/bsvte/?view_only=0e38f1cfc9d54cedab4100a380672cf4). Materials can be provided from the corresponding author, [email protected], upon reasonable request.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Notes

¹ When analyses for Study 1 were conducted with heterosexual men and women only, our findings remained consistent with those reported using the full sample. Similarly, when analyses were conducted with only cisgender men and women our results remained the same.

² When analyses for Study 2 were conducted with heterosexual men and women only, our findings remained consistent with those reported using the full sample. Similarly, when analyses were conducted with only cisgender men and women our results remained the same.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following grants awarded to S. J. Dawson: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant, Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund, British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award. The work was also supported by an International Academy of Sex Research Student Research Development Award awarded to S. Milani. S. Milani was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Master’s Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master’s Award and a Faculty of Arts Graduate Award (UBC).