Women’s Cognitive and Emotional Appraisal of Sex Pictures: The Predictive Role of Age, Exposure Time, and Sexual Beliefs

Abstract

This study researched how age predicts women’s cognitive and emotional appraisal of sex pictures. One hundred and fifty five women were exposed to romantic, sexually moderate and sexually explicit pictures. Women reported on the emotional valence, subjective sexual arousal, and level of sexual content attributed to the pictures; women’s sexual beliefs were further evaluated. Findings revealed that age predicted increased pleasantness to sexually moderate and explicit pictures, as well as higher subjective sexual arousal to all type of pictures. Some predictions were moderated by sexual beliefs and exposure time, pointing the role of contextual factors in women’s appraisal of erotica.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 While this is an expected assumption in the Portuguese context, it may depart from other cultural contexts.

2 Even though, is worth noting that the majority of women (89.5%) reported low frequency of visualization of sexual contents (see Table 1), and there is no relationship between age and visualization of sexual contents (r_s = -.14, p = .07).

Additional information

Funding

This project is supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through national and European funds, under the project FEMOFFENCE - PTDC/PSI‐GER/28097/2017, granted to Principal Investigator Joana Carvalho.