ABSTRACT

Asexuality has garnered much attention, and empirical data support its classification as a sexual orientation. Asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to others, with approximately 1% of the population falling in this category. As theoretical models situate attention as a central component of sexual response, the current study examined attentional processing of erotic stimuli in asexuals and heterosexuals. We hypothesized that heterosexual participants would have initial and controlled visual attention patterns favoring erotic images over non-erotic images. We predicted that asexual participants would have significantly smaller or non-existent differences in attention to erotic versus non-erotic images. Ninety-five adults completed an eye-tracking task viewing erotic and non-erotic images. Eye-tracking data showed no group differences in initial attention to erotic images. For controlled attention, there was a large effect size in the hypothesized direction. Heterosexual participants exhibited more and longer fixations on erotic images, whereas asexuals exhibited a more even distribution of attention across image types. Exploratory analysis of group differences in the association between visual attention and ratings of sexual attractiveness revealed a complex pattern of differences, with some indication of a stronger association between total fixation and sexual attraction for heterosexual participants. These findings suggest that differences in attention to sexual stimuli may represent key underlying differences between asexual and allosexual orientation. Findings also contribute to the larger literature on visual attention and attraction.

摘要

无性恋引起了很多关注，经验数据支持将其归类为性取向。无性恋被定义为对他人缺乏性吸引力，大约 1% 的人口属于这一类。由于理论模型将注意力定位为性反应的核心组成部分，目前的研究检查了无性恋者和异性恋者对色情刺激的注意力处理。我们假设异性恋参与者最初和受控的视觉注意力模式偏爱色情图片而不是非色情图片。我们预测无性恋参与者在关注色情与非色情图像方面的差异会小得多或不存在。九十五名成年人完成了一项观看色情和非色情图片的眼动追踪任务。眼动追踪数据显示，最初对色情图片的关注没有群体差异。对于受控注意力，在假设的方向上有很大的影响。异性恋参与者对色情图片表现出更多和更长时间的注视，而无性恋者则表现出对图像类型的注意力分布更均匀。对视觉注意力和性吸引力评级之间关联的群体差异的探索性分析揭示了一种复杂的差异模式，一些迹象表明异性恋参与者的完全固定和性吸引力之间存在更强的关联。这些发现表明，对性刺激的关注差异可能代表了无性取向和异性恋取向之间的关键潜在差异。