London - Sex can be messy, but most people don’t seem to mind too much, and new research suggests it may be because sexual arousal makes most women harder to disgust.
Authors of the study, led by Charmaine Borg of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, asked female participants to complete various disgusting-seeming actions, including drinking from a cup with an insect in it or wiping their hands with a used tissue.
Sexually aroused subjects responded to the tasks with less disgust than subjects who were not aroused, suggesting that the state of arousal has some effect on women’s disgust response.
Borg said: “Women [who] were sexually aroused were more willing to touch and do initially disgusting tasks.
“These findings indicate that a lack of sexual arousal may interfere with functional sex, as it may prevent the reduction of disgust and disgust-related avoidance tendencies.”
The researchers divided the female participants into three groups, and asked each to watch a video before performing tasks.
One of the groups watched “female friendly erotica”, while another watched extreme sports and the third watched a video of a train, which was meant to offer a neutral response.
The groups were then asked to use the tissue or drink from the cup, and the researchers found that the “sexually aroused” group reported less feelings of disgust.
For the study, the insect was made of plastic and the tissue was coloured with ink to make it appear used.
The group who watched the erotica also successfully completed most of the tasks assigned to them, compared to the other groups.
The authors conclude that sexual arousal has an effect on women’s disgust response. – Daily Mail