Sexual attraction isattraction on the basis ofsexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest.[1]Sexual attractiveness orsex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor insexual selection ormate choice. The attraction can be to thephysical or other qualities or traits of a person, or to such qualities in the context where they appear. The attraction may be to a person'saesthetics, movements, voice, among other things. The attraction may be enhanced by a person'sbody odor,sex pheromones, adornments, clothing, perfume orhair style. It can be influenced by individualgenetic,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.
The ability of a person's physical and other qualities to create a sexual interest in others is the basis of their use inadvertising,film, and other visual media, as well as inmodeling and other occupations. In evolutionary terms, theovulatory shift hypothesis posits that female humans exhibit different sexual behaviours and desires at points in theirmenstrual cycle, as a means to ensure that they attract a high quality mate to copulate with during their mostfertile 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 toovulation.[4]
Social and biological factors
Human sexuality has many aspects. Inbiology, sexuality describes the reproductive mechanism and the basic biological drive that exists in all sexually reproducing species and can encompasssexual 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 thecultural,political, andlegal aspects;philosophically, it can span themoral,ethical,theological,spiritual, andreligious 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, acrosssexual fields, or simply by the preferences of theindividual. These preferences come about as a result of a complex variety ofgenetic,psychological, and cultural factors.
A person'sphysical appearance has a critical impact on their sexual attractiveness. This involves the impact one's appearance has on thesenses, especially in the beginning of a relationship, among them:
As with other animals,pheromones may have an impact, though less significantly in the case of humans. Theoretically, the "wrong" pheromone may cause someone to be disliked, even when they would otherwise appear attractive. Frequently, a pleasant-smellingperfume is used to encourage the other person to more deeply inhale theair surrounding its wearer,[citation needed] increasing theprobability 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 ofsexual fetishism and aresexually stimulated by other stimuli not normally associated withsexual arousal. The degree to which such fetishism exists or has existed in different cultures is controversial.
Pheromones have been determined to playa 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]
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 afear-arousing suspension bridge or a normal bridge. Conclusively, it was shown that the male participants who were asked by the female interviewer to perform thethematic 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, forcompanionship,procreation, or anintimate relationship, besides other possible purposes. It can be part of acourtship 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 includeflirting, which can be used to attract the sexual attention of another to encourage romance or sexual relations, and can involvebody language, conversation, joking, or brief physical contact.[9]
This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Most sources here are from the 1990s, please demonstrate what the view is in recent secondary scientific sources. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2023)
Men have been found to have a greater interest inuncommitted 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 topartner status in women choosing asexual partner and men placing a greater emphasis onphysical attractiveness in a potential mate, as well as a significantly greater tendency toward sexualjealousy in men and emotional jealousy in women.[13]
Bailey, Gaulin, Agyei, and Gladue (1994) analyzed whether these results varied according tosexual orientation. In general, they found biological sex played a bigger role in the psychology of sexual attraction than orientation. However, there were some differences between homosexual and heterosexual women and men on these factors. While gay and straight men showed similar psychological interest in casual sex on markers ofsociosexuality, 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 inromantic partnerships. Heterosexual men had a significantly greater preference for younger partners than homosexual men.[14] People who identify asasexual 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
Theovulatory shift hypothesis is the theory that female humans tend to exhibit different sexual behaviours and desires at points in their cycle. Twometa-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 ofhealth andreproductive success.[18]
Ovulation
Hormone levels throughout the menstrual cycle affect a woman's behaviour in preferences and in their overt behaviours. Theornamentation effect is a phenomenon influenced by a stage of the menstrual cycle which refers to the way a woman presents herself to others, in a way to attract potential sexual partners. Studies have found that the closer women were toovulation, 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]Hormonal contraception can affect the sexual attraction.[23]
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 mostfertile phase of their cycles, in comparison to when they are in theluteal phases.[24] Men become increasinglyjealous and possessive over their partners during this stage.[25]
^Buss, D. M., & Shmitt, D. P. (1993). "Sexual strategies theory: A contextual evolutionary analysis of human mating".Psychological Review: 100, 204–232.
^Conley, T. D. (2011). "Perceived proposer personality characteristics and gender differences in acceptance of casual sex offers".Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.100 (2):309–329.doi:10.1037/a0022152.PMID21171789.
^Ellis, B.J.; Symons, D. (1990). "Sex differences in sexual fantasy: An evolutionary psychological approach".Journal of Sex Research.27 (4):527–555.doi:10.1080/00224499009551579.
^Wiederman, M. W.; Allgeier, E. R. (1992). "Gender differences in mate selection criteria: Sociobiological or socioeconomic explanation?".Ethology and Sociobiology.13 (2):115–124.doi:10.1016/0162-3095(92)90021-u.
^Bailey, J.M.; Gaulin, S.; Agyei, Y.; Gladue, B. (1994). "Effects of gender and sexual orientation on evolutionarily relevant aspects of human mating psychology".Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.66 (6):1081–1093.doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.6.1081.PMID8046578.
^Gildersleeve, Kelly; Haselton, Martie G.; Fales, Melissa R. (2014). "Do women's mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle? A meta-analytic review".Psychological Bulletin (Meta-analysis).140 (5):1205–1259.doi:10.1037/a0035438.PMID24564172.
^Wood, Wendy; Kressel, Laura; Joshi, Priyanka D.; Louie, Brian (2014). "Meta-analysis of menstrual cycle effects on women's mate preferences".Emotion Review.6 (3):229–249.doi:10.1177/1754073914523073.S2CID4641508.
^Haselton, Martie G.; Mortezaie, Mina; Pillsworth, Elizabeth G.; Bleske-Rechek, April; Frederick, David A. (January 1, 2007). "Ovulatory shifts in human female ornamentation: Near ovulation, women dress to impress".Hormones and Behavior.51 (1):40–45.doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.07.007.PMID17045994.S2CID9268718.
^Pillsworth, Elizabeth G.; Haselton, Martie G. (July 1, 2006). "Male sexual attractiveness predicts differential ovulatory shifts in female extra-pair attraction and male mate retention".Evolution and Human Behavior.27 (4):247–258.Bibcode:2006EHumB..27..247P.doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.10.002.ISSN1090-5138.
Feinberg DR, Jones BC, Law Smith MJ, et al. (February 2006). "Menstrual cycle, trait estrogen level, and masculinity preferences in the human voice".Horm Behav.49 (2):215–22.doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.07.004.PMID16055126.S2CID14884832.
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