Not in the mood for sex tonight? Are you absolutely, honestly sure? Because you might be, but just don’t want to admit it.
Guilty pressure
A study published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour said that some women did not realise they were aroused, even though their physical reactions clearly indicated that they were. On the other hand, men felt physically and mentally aroused at the same time, the study said.
Feelings of guilt and shame around sex could explain this, the Telegraph quoted the research team as saying.
“Some women show (physical) responses without reporting any experience of sexual arousal,” according to the findings. “Self-reported sexual arousal is subject to impression management – as in the greater reluctance among women high in sex guilt to report feeling sexually aroused." It’s the norm, not an exception What’s shocking is that feeling guilty “may be the norm for many women” and could result in a not so satisfying sex life, the researchers said.
it's not an expectation
For men, however, there is an evolutionary advantage to having their brains in sync with their physical desires. While they maybe what researchers describe as ‘highly sexed’, they are more likely to reproduce and to pass on their genes to the next generation.
Meredith Chivers, from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, said: "We wanted to discover how closely people's subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response – and whether this differs between men and women. "Our results have implications for the assessment of sexual arousal, the nature of gender differences in sexual arousal, and models of sexual response."
The research looked at 132 studies, carried out over 40 years, which measured the physical and mental responses of more than 4,000 men and women. Volunteers were asked to describe how aroused they felt after being exposed to erotic stimuli.
Chivers said that most studies tended to take the word of volunteers when they said they were aroused or not.
Source: Agency
