Viewing time as a measure of bisexual sexual interest.

ABSTRACT

Studies of bisexual sexual interest have focused mostly on measures of genital arousal in bisexual men and have generally failed to find evidence of a bisexual pattern of genital arousal. Bisexual women have rarely been studied and other measures of sexual interest have not been used to study bisexual interest in either sex. In this study, we examined a non-genital measure of sexual interest, viewing time, among 16 bisexual men, 19 bisexual women, 15 heterosexual men, 15 heterosexual women, 15 homosexual men, and 10 homosexual women. Sexual orientation was determined from a self-report questionnaire. Stimuli were pictures of males and females of all five Tanner stages of sexual development. Participants were asked to rate the sexual appeal of the individuals depicted in the pictures, while the time taken to provide a response was covertly measured. Using a signed index that compared viewing times to pictures of sexually mature males and females, bisexual men and bisexual women did not look longer at pictures of one gender, whereas the other four groups had longer viewing times for pictures of one gender. Using an absolute index, the three groups of women showed a similar (and low) degree of gender preference. All groups showed longer viewing times for sexually mature individuals than for sexually immature individuals, suggesting that the viewing time responses of bisexual men and women were not produced by a general tendency to look indiscriminately at all pictures. There were small to moderate correlations between viewing times and rated sexual appeal in all groups. Results suggest that viewing time can be used to detect a bisexual pattern of sexual interest in bisexual men and bisexual women.