Effects of alcohol and cognitive set on sexual arousal to deviant stimuli.

Abstract

Forty-eight undergraduate male social drinkers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy set conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they were administered contained alcohol or no alcohol. For half of the subjects in each expectancy condition, the beverage was an alcoholic malt liquor; the others drank a nonalcoholic malt beverage. After their drinks, changes in penile tumescence in response to normal and deviant tape recordings and to self-generated fantasy were measured physiologically by a mercuryin-rubber strain gauge. The cognitive set (expectancy) significantly increased penile tumescence in response to the various erotic recordings. Alcohol did not significantly influence levels of sexual arousal. Subjects who believed they had consumed an alcoholic beverage evidenced significantly more arousal to the forcible rape recording and to the sadistic stimuli than subjects who believed that they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage, regardless of the actual contents of the beverage. The cognitive set, as well as the alcohol, significantly influenced several adjunctive measures of arousal, including heart rate, skin temperature, and subjective reports of sexual arousal. Self-report measures of sexual arousal were positively correlated with penile tumescence.An association between alcohol and serious criminal offense is often assumed (Fink, 1938;McGeorge, 1963). In particular, recent investigators suggest a direct relation between alcohol ingestion and aggressive sexual offenses such as forcible rape (Amir, 1971; Gebhard, Gagnon, Pomeroy, & Christenson, 196S;Rada, 1975). Gebhard et al. (1965) interviewed 1,356 white males who had been convicted of one or more sexual offenses. They reported that heterosexual contact accompanied by force or threat with females over age 16 was in sig-The authors express appreciation to Everett Smith, William Hawkins, Shirley Justice, and Betty Catoe for their conscientious assistance in conducting the study. The theoretical contributions of G. Terence Wilson are also gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank the Hecht Distributing Company, Norfolk, Virginia, for providing the experimental beverages.Requests for reprints should be sent to

Sexual assault and alcohol consumption: what do we know about their relationship and what types of research are still needed?

“…Men who thought they were drinking alcohol were more sexually aroused by depictions of forced and consensual sex than were men who did not think they had consumed alcohol (Briddell et al, 1978;George & Marlatt, 1986;George & Norris, 1991;George, Stoner, Norris, Lopez, & Lehman, 2000). In these studies, it was the belief that one had consumed alcohol, rather than alcohol consumption, which affected men's sexual arousal.…”

Genital and heart rate response to erotic stimulation in men with and without premature ejaculation

“…[16][17][18][19][20] In studies where physical exertion is minimized during arousal, such as when men are exposed to visual sexual stimulation while seated in a laboratory, heart rate shows variable and complex patterns. For example, several studies indicate decreasing heart rate during arousal, 21,22 perhaps due in part to increased attentiveness to sexual stimuli. 23,24 Others suggest a biphasic response-initial deceleration followed by acceleration-or a diverging response, with some men showing accelerated heart rate and variable penile tumescence and others showing a more stable heart rate with smooth tumescence.…”

Alcohol Suppresses the Electroencephalographic Response to Visual Erotic Stimuli in Young Men

“…Additionally, some studies have suggested that the fact that subject's believe they are drinking an alcoholic beverage, even with no real alcohol administration, can increase subjective sexual arousal [8,24,40]. In our study, participants in both groups believed they had ingested red wine.…”

“…Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyses were then applied to the artifact-free data in 2-s epoch samples, with the spectral graph ranging from 0.5 -30 Hz at 0.5 Hz-resolution. FFTs were performed using EEGmagic software [38] to calculate: 1) absolute power (AP), defined as the power density of each frequency band expressed in microvolts squared (μV2/Hz); 2) relative power (RP), the proportional contribution of each band to total power across 1 -30 Hz and; 3) correlation, the degree of functional coupling between the prefrontal and parietal or temporal cortices in each one of the six frequency bands monitored: namely, delta (1 -3.5 Hz), theta (4 -7.75 Hz), alpha1 (8 -10.5 Hz), alpha2 (11 -13.5 Hz), beta1 (14 -19.5 Hz) and beta2 (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). Correlation values were averaged over all epochs of the same condition for each subject and pair of derivations.…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of erotic films in eliciting sexual arousal in humans [21][22][23] using both, questionnaires or verbal reports as well as objective measures (changes of the penile circumference) [24,25]. Associated with this sexual arousal state induced by observation of erotic films, characteristic EEG changes has been reported, such as increases in the fast frequencies and decreases in the synchronization between cortical areas of young men [26][27][28].…”