Sexual Misperception: Theories, Factors and Contentious Issues

Abstract

Perception of sexual intentions refers to the assessment of a person's subjective interest in pur-suing sexual activity. Sexual misperception refers to overperception or underperception of other's sexual intentions. Many experimental studies have found that there is a gender difference in sexual misperception, namely, that men tend to overperceive women's sexual intentions. Many researchers tried to identify the causes and formative mechanisms of this gender difference from the perspective of evolutionary psychology, physiological differences, socialization and sex stereotype. In addition to the gender difference, some studies have found that participant's characteristics, the target's characteristics and contextual factors can also influence the participant's sexual intention perception. There are two controversies in previous studies. One is about mate value and perception of sexual intent and the other one is about men's overpeception of sexual intent. Finally, to understand the causes and formative mechanisms of sexual perception more deeply, future studies should focus on developing theoretical models, expanding the populations sampled and enriching studies on individual differences. In addition, people in China hold obscure attitudes toward sex; therefore, it is meaningful to carry on further research about sexual misperception in China.