LECTURER
Dr. Michael Häfner
(Utrecht University)

TITLE
Sexual arousal as information: what physiological arousal means to men and women, and why that matters.

DATE & TIME
Wednesday, 15 Febrary, 15.00 – 16.45 hrs

LOCATION
BL205 Bloemstraat 36

ABSTRACT
A clinically toned literature on sexual arousal established the finding that physiological and psychological arousal are largely dissociated in women, whereas both seem to correspond almost perfectly in men. Despite the pervasiveness of this finding, explanations of the phenomenon remain scarce and, more importantly, largely untested. The present talk presents a classic social psychological take on the phenomenon: I propose that sexual arousal serves as different information in men and women. Whereas men directly use their physiological arousal as basis to judge their subjective arousal, women interpret the bodily signal by activating conceptual knowledge. Hence, if the arousal is triggered by counter-normative stimuli, such as pornography, the activation of restrictive sexual norms and stereotypes should, in the end, down-regulate women’s subjective experience. Multiple experiments confirming this line of reasoning will be presented and discussed, also in light of recent clinical studies.

For more information you may contact dr K. (Kai) Epstude, email address
k.epstude@rug.nl