Was ist Evolution?

Die Auswirkungen von Ekel auf sexuelle Lust bei Frauen

Eine interessante Studie behandelt die Auswirkungen von Ekel auf sexuelle Lust bei Frauen:

Sexual arousal is a motivational state that moves humans toward situations that inherently pose a risk of disease transmission. Disgust is an emotion that adaptively moves humans away from such situations. Incongruent is the fact that sexual activity is elementary to human fitness yet involves strong disgust elicitors. Using an experimental paradigm, we investigated how these two states interact. Women (final N=76) were assigned to one of four conditions: rate disgust stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; watch a pornographic clip then rate disgust stimuli; rate fear stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; or watch a pornographic clip then rate fear stimuli. Women’s genital sexual arousal was measured with vaginal photoplethysmography and their disgust and fear reactions were measured via self-report. We did not find that baseline disgust propensity predicted sexual arousal in women who were exposed to neutral stimuli before erotic content. In the Erotic-before-Disgust condition we did not find that sexual arousal straightforwardly predicted decreased image disgust ratings. However, we did find some evidence that sexual arousal increased self-reported disgust in women with high trait disgust and sexual arousal decreased self-reported disgust in women with low trait disgust. Women who were exposed to disgusting images before erotic content showed significantly less sexual arousal than women in the control condition or women exposed to fear-inducing images before erotic content. In the Disgust-before-Erotic condition the degree of self-reported disgust was negatively correlated with genital sexual arousal. Hence, in the conflict between the ultimate goals of reproduction and disease avoidance, cues of the presence of pathogens significantly reduce the motivation to engage in mating behaviors that, by their nature, entail a risk of pathogen transmission.

Quelle: Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women

Dazu aus einem Artikel zu dieser Studie:

Disgust is thought to be a protective emotion because it encourages humans to shun anything which could transmit disease, such as another person’s blood or body fluids.

Dr Fleischman, an evolutionary psychologist, said: „Sex includes increased contact with body odours and fluids which, in other contexts, strongly suggest disease and would elicit disgust. Women are more vulnerable to contracting diseases through sex than men and show worse outcomes once infected so we should expect that women will be especially turned off when they are disgusted.

Das halte ich auch für eine gute Erklärung. Es ist wahrscheinlich auch der Grund, warum Kinder, deren Sexualtrieb mangels der entsprechenden Hormone noch nicht aktiviert ist, die Vorstellung von Sex erst einmal ekelig finden

„It makes sense that sexual arousal and disgust would affect one another. Sexual arousal motivates us toward closeness with others and their bodies while disgust motivates us away. Given these competing motivations, every one of our ancestors had to overcome disgust in order to have sexual contact and reproduce.

„Another prediction we made was that arousal would reduce disgust sensitivity. Previous studies have found that men and women who are exposed to sexually explicit images report less disgust. However our study is the first to measure blood flow to the genitals, which is necessary for sexual arousal, and how it interacts with disgust.“

Macht die Studie aus meiner Sicht etwas angreifbar, weil soweit ich weiß der Blutstrom in die Genitalien bei Frauen nicht per se etwas mit Lust zu tun hat

One of the most consistent differences science has found between men and women is that men are less sensitive to disgust than women, especially when it comes to sex. The researchers wanted to find out if women who are less likely to be disgusted would respond like men when sexually aroused.

Männer sind Schweine, hier einmal in wissenschaftlich (wobei Schweinen da ja unrecht getan wird, sie sind wohl recht saubere Tiere). Allerdings kann ich mir das durchaus vorstellen, natürlich im Schnitt. Männer können nicht so empfindlich sein wie Frauen und gerade beim Sex haben sie neben den oben angesprochenen Vorteilen, dass sie sich seltener anstecken, auch noch den Vorteil, dass sie unter Berücksichtigung evolutionärer Zeiten die Kosten eher an die Frauen abgeben konnten, da diese schwanger wurden.

The research found that women who are not very disgust-sensitive turn down their disgust sensitivity even further when they’re sexually aroused whereas women who are highly disgust-sensitive show greater disgust when sexually aroused.

Weswegen Männer gelernt haben, dass man vor einem Date grundsätzlich sein Schlafzimmer und die Wohnung putzen sollte, um die Chancen auf Sex zu erhöhen. Auch vielleicht ein Grund, warum Frauen, die nach der Studie eben eine höhere „Ekel-Sensibilität“ haben, eher Putzen als Männer und sich eher beschweren, dass Männer „den Dreck nicht sehen“, was wohl dann eher zu übersetzen ist mit „ihn noch nicht schlimm genug finden um unbedingt zu putzen“.

Die Studie wurde wie folgt durchgeführt

The study included 76 heterosexual women aged 18-42.

One group was shown disgusting images then asked to watch an erotic film. The second group watched an erotic film and were then were shown disgusting images. The third group were shown frightening images then shown an erotic film. The fourth group watched an erotic film and were then shown frightening images.

Images used to elicit disgust in the women taking part included diseased or injured humans and human corpses, faeces and people vomiting.

The erotic films watched were produced and directed by women and intended to be sexually appealing specifically to women.

The images designed to elicit fear included violent people, dangerous animals, weapons, heights, tornados and fire.

Before the experiments, all the women were asked to insert a vaginal photoplethysmograph — a clear acrylic tampon-shaped device that measures blood flow to the vagina which indicates sexual arousal. They were also asked to report their own degree of arousal, disgust and fear after their tests.

Women who were exposed to disgusting images before watching an erotic film were three times less sexually aroused than those who had seen frightening images or those in the control group. There was no significant difference in the degrees of sexual arousal in the other groups.

Also scheint der Ekel das erotische Signal zu behindern, aber nicht zu beseitigen, wenn erst die Erregung vorhanden ist und dann etwas ekeliges gezeigt wird.

Earlier studies have shown sexually aroused men are much less likely to find things disgusting. The latest study does not find the same straightforward story for women, but that was predictable, Dr Fleischman says, because of women’s greater vulnerability to contracting disease through sexual activity.

Wenn er erst einmal erregt ist, dann spielt Ekel keine so große Rolle. Vielleicht auch der Grund, warum Männer mit Frauen schlafen, bei denen sie sich am nächsten Morgen fragen, warum sie das wollten.