Sexual attraction

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This article is about sexual attraction among humans. For sexual attraction among other animals, see Animal sexual behaviour.
"Sex appeal" redirects here. For other uses, see Sex Appeal.

The Flirtation (1904), by Eugene de Blaas

Sexual attraction is

psychological
, or cultural factors, or to other, more amorphous qualities. Sexual attraction is also a response to another person that depends on a combination of the person possessing the traits and on the criteria of the person who is attracted.

Though attempts have been made to devise objective criteria of sexual attractiveness and measure it as

erotic capital), a person's sexual attractiveness is to a large extent a subjective measure dependent on another person's interest, perception, and sexual orientation. For example, a gay or lesbian person would typically find a person of the same sex to be more attractive than one of the other sex. A bisexual person would find either sex to be attractive. Asexuality refers to those who do not experience sexual attraction for either sex, though they may have romantic attraction or a non-directed libido.[2] Interpersonal attraction includes factors such as physical or psychological similarity, familiarity or possessing a preponderance of common or familiar features, similarity, complementarity, reciprocal liking, and reinforcement.[3]

The ability of a person's physical and other qualities to create a sexual interest in others is the basis of their use in advertising, film, and other visual media, as well as in modeling and other occupations.

In evolutionary terms, the

fertile time. Hormone levels throughout the menstrual cycle affect a woman's overt behaviours, influencing the way a woman presents herself to others during stages of her menstrual cycle, in an attempt to attract high quality mates the closer the woman is to ovulation.[4]

Social and biological factors

Human sexuality has many aspects. In biology, sexuality describes the reproductive mechanism and the basic biological drive that exists in all sexually reproducing species and can encompass sexual intercourse and sexual contact in all its forms. There are also emotional and physical aspects of sexuality. These relate to the bond between individuals, which may be expressed through profound feelings or emotions. Sociologically, it can cover the cultural, political, and legal aspects; philosophically, it can span the moral, ethical, theological, spiritual, and religious aspects.

Which aspects of a person's sexuality attract another is influenced by cultural factors; it has varied over time, as well as personal factors. Influencing factors may be determined more locally among sub-cultures, across

psychological
, and cultural factors.

A person's

physical appearance has a critical impact on their sexual attractiveness. This involves the impact one's appearance has on the senses
, especially in the beginning of a relationship, among them:

As with other animals,

air surrounding its wearer,[citation needed] increasing the probability that the individual's pheromones will be inhaled. The importance of pheromones in human relationships is probably limited and is widely disputed,[unreliable source?][5] although it appears to have some scientific basis.[6]

Some people exhibit high levels of

sexually stimulated by other stimuli not normally associated with sexual arousal
. The degree to which such fetishism exists or has existed in different cultures is controversial.

Pheromones have been determined to play a role in sexual attraction between people. They influence gonadal hormone secretion, for example, follicle maturation in the ovaries in females and testosterone and sperm production in males.[7]

High anxiety

Research conducted by Donald G. Dutton and Arthur P. Aron in the 1970s aimed to find the relation between sexual attraction and high anxiety conditions. In doing so, 85 male participants were contacted by an attractive female interviewer at either a

thematic apperception test (TAT) on the fear-arousing bridge, wrote more sexual content in the stories and attempted, with greater effort, to contact the interviewer after the experiment than those participants who performed the TAT on the normal bridge. In another test, a male participant, chosen from a group of 80, was given anticipated shocks. With him was an attractive female confederate, who was also being shocked. The experiment showed that the male's sexual imagery in the TAT was much higher when self shock was anticipated and not when the female confederate shock was anticipated.[8]

Enhancement

People consciously or subconsciously enhance their sexual attractiveness or sex appeal for a number of reasons. It may be to attract someone with whom they can form a deeper relationship, for

procreation, or an intimate relationship, besides other possible purposes. It can be part of a courtship process. This can involve physical aspects or interactive processes whereby people find and attract potential partners, and maintain a relationship. These processes, which involve attracting a partner and maintaining sexual interest, can include flirting, which can be used to attract the sexual attention of another to encourage romance or sexual relations, and can involve body language, conversation, joking, or brief physical contact.[9]

Sex and sexuality differences

Part of a series on
Sex differences in humans
Biology
Medicine and health
Neuroscience and psychology
Sociology

Men have been found to have a greater interest in uncommitted sex compared to women.[10] Some research shows this interest to be more sociological than biological.[11] Men have a greater interest in visual sexual stimuli than women. However,[12] additional trends have been found with a greater sensitivity to partner status in women choosing a sexual partner and men placing a greater emphasis on physical attractiveness in a potential mate, as well as a significantly greater tendency toward sexual jealousy in men and emotional jealousy in women.[13]

Bailey, Gaulin, Agyei, and Gladue (1994) analyzed whether these results varied according to

sociosexuality, gay men showed a larger number of partners in behaviour expressing this interest (proposed to be due to a difference in opportunity). Self-identified lesbian women showed a significantly greater interest in visual sexual stimuli than heterosexual women and judged partner status to be less important in romantic partnerships. Heterosexual men had a significantly greater preference for younger partners than homosexual men.[14] People who identify as asexual may not be sexually attracted to anyone. Gray asexuality
includes those who only experience sexual attraction under certain circumstances; for example, exclusively after an emotional bond has been formed. This tends to vary from person to person.

Sexual preferences and hormones

The ovulatory shift hypothesis is the theory that female humans tend to exhibit different sexual behaviours and desires at points in their cycle. Two meta-analyses published in 2014 reached opposing conclusions on whether the existing evidence was robust enough to support the prediction that women's mate preferences change across the cycle.[15][16] A newer 2018 review does not show women changing the type of men they desire at different times in their fertility cycle.[17]

In males, a masculine face has been positively correlated with fewer respiratory diseases and, as a consequence, masculine features offer a marker of health and reproductive success.[18]

Ovulation and ornamentation

Hormone levels throughout the menstrual cycle affect a woman's behaviour in preferences and in their overt behaviours. The

ovulation, the more provocatively they dress and the more attractive they are rated.[19]

It is possible that women are sensitive to the changes in their physical attractiveness throughout their cycles, such that at their most fertile stages their levels of attractiveness are increased. Consequently, they choose to display their increased levels of attractiveness through this method of ornamentation.[20]

During periods of hormonal imbalance, women exhibit a peak in sexual activity.[21] As these findings have been recorded for female-initiated sexual activity and not for male-initiated activity, the causation appears to be hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle.[21]

Research has also found that menstrual cycles affect sexual behaviour frequency in pre-

menopausal women. For example, women who had weekly sexual intercourse with men had menstrual cycles with the average duration of 29 days, while women with less frequent sexual interactions tended to have more extreme cycle lengths.[22]

Male response to ovulation

Changes in hormones during a female's cycles affect the way she behaves and the way males behave towards her. Research has found that men are a lot more attentive and loving towards their partners when they are in the most

luteal phases.[23] Men become increasingly jealous and possessive over their partners during this stage.[24]

See also

References

  1. TheFreeDictionary.com. Archived
    from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  2. ^ "Things That Are Not Asexuality". Asexuality Archive. 2012-05-27. Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  3. ^ Miller, R., Perlman, D., and Brehm, S.S. Intimate Relationships, 4th Edition, McGraw Hill Companies.[page needed]
  4. S2CID 26680290.[dead link
    ]
  5. ^ Adams, Cecil (1987-01-30). "Will pheromones make you irresistible to the opposite sex?". The Straight Dope. Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved November 30, 2006.
  6. ^ Graham, Sarah (August 29, 2001). "First Evidence of a Human Response to Pheromones". ScientificAmerican. Archived from the original on Mar 9, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2006.
  7. PMID 15653193. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  8. S2CID 31921849
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  9. ^ SIRC Guide to Flirting. What Social Science can tell you about flirting and how to do it. Archived 2020-12-17 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  10. ^ Buss, D. M., & Shmitt, D. P. (1993). "Sexual strategies theory: A contextual evolutionary analysis of human mating". Psychological Review: 100, 204–232.
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  16. S2CID 4641508
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  17. S2CID 53715304. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2022-11-28. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  18. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.06.001. Archived
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  19. S2CID 9268718
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  20. S2CID 7065777
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  21. ^
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  23. ISSN 1090-5138
    .
  24. PMID 12028782
    .

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sexual attraction.
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