It is often assumed that safety during sex (for example, insisting on the use of a condom) should be a woman, as a “more reasonable” partner. However, new data show that both men and women are equally prone to taking unnecessary risks when aroused.
A group of Canadian researchers led by psychologist Shayna Skakoon-Sparling conducted an experiment involving 144 students. They were not told the true purpose of the study. Half of them were shown a two-minute excerpt from a pornographic film. The other half, the control group, watched a non-sex video, such as a scene from WALL-E.
After watching the video, participants answered questions about their mood (arousal). Then they were asked to imagine how they would behave in an imaginary situation – for example, whether they would decide to have sex if none of the partners had a condom.
Volunteers who watched porn but were not sufficiently aroused (less than 3 points on a 10-point scale), as well as overly aroused control participants (more than 2 out of 10 points) were excluded from the data analysis. As a result, the answers of 80 women and 33 men (mean age 23 years) were analyzed.
They found that, in general, men were more likely to have unprotected sex in the hypothetical situation described. Remarkably, however, both men and women who watched porn were significantly more risk-averse than those in the control group.
The second experiment assessed the effect of sexual arousal on the propensity to take risks in non-sexual situations. It was attended by other students, who were also divided into two groups, one of them watched porn, and the second – a neutral video. After watching the videos, the students played blackjack. Those who watched porn were more likely to take risks during the game: and the propensity to take risks correlated with the level of arousal, which was assessed on a 10-point scale.
Подробнее см. S. Skakoon-Sparling et al. «The impact of sexual arousal on sexual risk-taking and decision-making in men and women», Archives of Sexual Behavior, August 2015.