| Sexual arousal is associated with increases in a variety ofimpulsive choices, such as engaging in unprotected sex, having sex with strangers, and more frequent sexual activity. Little is known about sexual arousal’sassociationwith impulsive choice for domain-specific outcomes usinga laboratory measure of impulsive choice. This study investigatedsexual arousal’simpact ondelay discounting—which measures impulsivebehavioralchoice—for both monetary and sexual outcomes. Participants (N=70) wereassigned randomly to one oftwo video groups (eroticor control) and completed delay discounting tasks for either money or sexual activity. Repeated-measuresANCOVAtested the first hypothesis andfound adomain-specific effectof video groupon discounting task, when controlling for sexual risk taking, such that watching an erotic video (as compared to a neutral video) was associated with significantly more impulsive (i.e., more discounted) decision-makingforsexual activity but not money(F(1,32)=14.071, p<.01, partial 2=.305)using k as an estimate of discounting rate. Repeated-measures ANOVA found the same effect using Area Under the Curve (AUC)to measure discounting rate (F(1,33)=7.038, p<.05, partial 2=.305). A simple mediation modelcould not be properly analyzed to test the second hypothesis due to significant multicollinearity between the independent variable, video group, and the mediator, sexual arousal. However, sexual arousal better accounted for variance in sexual activity discounting scores using k and AUC, compared to video group. Sexual arousal, elicited in this case by viewing erotica,appears to have a domain-specific effect on college men’s impulsivity for sexual decisions, rather than a more general impact on behavioral choice. This proclivity to make short-sighted sexual decisions under sexually aroused conditions may be associatedwith negative health outcomes. Future
EFFECTSOF SEXUAL AROUSAL ON DECISION-MAKINGxistudies should extend these findings to diverse samplesin more ecologically valid settings using a range of outcomes. Key Words:behavioral choice, impulsivity, sexual activity, sexual arousal, visceral influence |