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Is Sexual Concordance Related to Awareness of Physiological States?

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Abstract

Sexual concordance refers to the degree to which two aspects of human sexual arousal (genital response and self-reported sexual arousal) correspond with each other. Researchers have consistently reported a sex difference in sexual concordance: The relationship between genital responses and reported feelings of sexual arousal in men is positive and large, whereas the relationship in women is positive but much smaller than that seen in men. The study of interoception—people’s awareness of their physiological states—reveals a similar sex difference: Men are more aware of a variety of (non-genital) responses (e.g., heart rate) than women in the laboratory. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the sex difference in sexual concordance was related to a broader sex difference in interoception. Twenty men and 20 women were presented with twelve 90 s sexual and non-sexual film clips while their genital responses, heart rate, and respiration rate were measured. Participants also estimated their physiological responses. As expected, men were significantly more sexually concordant than women. Men were also significantly more aware of their heart rate, but there was no significant sex difference in respiration rate awareness. Sexual concordance was not significantly correlated with either heart rate or respiration rate awareness. The results suggest that the sex difference in sexual concordance may be a unique phenomenon, separate from general awareness of physiological states.

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Notes

  1. We also calculated the relationship between physiological and self-reported physiological responses for women using hormonal contraceptives and naturally-cycling women separately. There were no differences between the two groups of women (all ps ≥ .22) and neither group of women showed a significant correlation between their sexual concordance and any form of interoceptive awareness (all ps ≥ .07).

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a doctoral fellowship granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as grants provided by the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, the University of Lethbridge, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We thank Brittany Bannerman, Samantha Dawson, Megan Ebsworth, and Michael Seto for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. A version of this article was presented at the University of Lethbridge Workshop, The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation: What Is It and How Does It Work?, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, June 2010.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada

    Kelly D. Suschinsky & Martin L. Lalumière

  2. Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Kelly D. Suschinsky

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  1. Kelly D. Suschinsky
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  2. Martin L. Lalumière
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Correspondence to Martin L. Lalumière.

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Suschinsky, K.D., Lalumière, M.L. Is Sexual Concordance Related to Awareness of Physiological States?. Arch Sex Behav 41, 199–208 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9931-9

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