Sexual Attentional Bias in Young Adult Heterosexual Men: Attention Allocation Following Self-Regulation.
Arch Sex Behav
; 50(6): 2531-2542, 2021 08.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34268658
ABSTRACT
Being sexually aroused can lead to a stronger propensity to engage in sexual risk-taking and sexually coercive behaviors possibly by narrowing attentional focus toward immediate gratification rather than long-term consequences. The goal of this paper was to investigate the attentional processes implicated in sexual self-regulation failure and its moderating factors, namely having a stronger sensitivity to sexual cues (dual control model) or being less able to implement behavioral intentions (action control theory) following a first effortful task. A total of 82 young adult heterosexual men completed a Dot Probe task to assess their attentional bias toward sexual stimuli. Effortful control was manipulated using a Stroop task. Regardless of conditions, higher sexual excitability was predictive of a stronger attentional bias toward sexual cues, while higher inhibition due to threat of performance failure was predictive of a lower bias for such cues. In the experimental condition, action-oriented individuals were able to negate this attentional bias by staying more focused on the task, while state-oriented participants showed higher orientation toward the sexual cues and thus a higher bias. These results suggest that both higher-order processes, like intention implementation, and lower-order processes, like sexual inhibition and excitation systems, are the key to regulation failure.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Autocontrole
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Viés de Atenção
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Arch Sex Behav
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Canadá