Gender Differences in Associations of Sexual and Romantic Stimuli: Do Young Men Really Prefer Sex over Romance?

Abstract

Theory and research emphasize differences in men's and women's sexual and romantic attitudes, concluding that men have stronger preferences for sexual than romantic stimuli as compared to women. However, most of the research on gender differences have relied on self-reports, which are plagued by problems of social desirability bias. The current study assessed young men's and women's implicit attitudes toward sexual and romantic stimuli to test whether, in fact, men have a stronger preference for sexual over romantic stimuli compared to women. We also assessed associations between implicit and explicit attitudes, as well as sex role ideology and personality. College students (68 men and 114 women) completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) that assessed strengths of associations of sexual and romantic stimuli to both pleasant and unpleasant conditions. Results revealed that both men and women more strongly associated romantic images to the pleasant condition than they associated the sexual images to the pleasant condition. However, as predicted, women had a stronger preference toward romantic versus sexual stimuli compared to men. Our study challenges a common assumption that men prefer sexual over romantic stimuli. The findings indicate that measures of implicit attitudes may tap preferences that are not apparent in studies relying on self-reported (explicit) attitudes.

Tie-Up Cycles in Long-Term Mating. Part I: Theory

“…For F, causing M to tie-up (M-TU) as a consequence of the action of F-AA means involving M in her mental process of emotional bonding construal. When M gets bonded in turn, the reward of F reaches its peak, as this signals that F-AA has been able to cause the Tie-Up of M. It is significant to note that Ms' preference for sexual over-romantic stimuli (and the other way round for Fs) does not depend on pleasantness of the association-in fact, in terms of pleasantness, both Ms and Fs associate romantic stimuli more strongly with the pleasant condition than sexual ones, which further strengthens the idea of a biological programming of the content of each sex's AAs [105]. Additionally, from the cognitive point of view, the structure of conceptual associations about sex-related matters is distinctively more focused on the emotional dimension for women and on the physical one for men [106], and the corresponding sex-related differences in word frequency and vocabulary use are clearly reflected in communication styles [107].…”

Which outcome expectancies are important in determining young adults’ intentions to use condoms with casual sexual partners?: a cross-sectional study

“…The present study however takes this work forward by employing a large sample to provide much greater confidence in the relationships estimated, and by further examining the effect of gender on outcome expectancy selection. This is important because evidence indicates that gender predicts condom use [36-38] and attitudes towards condom use [39], and that males and females are differentially motivated by the outcomes of unprotected sex [40-42]. …”

When First Comes Love (or Lust): How Romantic and Sexual Cues Bias First Impressions in Online Social Networking

“…Rather, priming romance will lead to romantic views of the target. In addition, women might be more accepting of the romance prime than toward the sex prime (Spiering et al, 2004; also Thompson & O'Sullivan, 2012). The opposite pattern might occur for men; given that men tend to avoid romantic attachment, men might be less accepting of romantic primes than of sex primes (Del Giudice, 2011;Schmitt, 2005; but see Thompson & O'Sullivan, 2012).…”