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Evidence for Persistence of Sexual Evaluative Learning Effects
Stephanie Both1, Mirte Brom1, Ellen Laan2
1Department of Psychosomatic Gynecology and Sexology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
|January 16, 2020
Summary
Conditioned sexual preferences in men and women showed resistance to extinction, persisting even after extensive trials. These learned sexual evaluations may be difficult to change, suggesting alternative interventions are needed.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Human Sexuality
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Conditioned sexual responses can be resistant to extinction, but this has not been extensively studied in humans.
- Previous research shows mixed results regarding the extinction of sexual conditioning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the resistance to extinction of conditioned sexual responses in both men and women.
- To determine if learned sexual evaluations persist after repeated extinction trials.
Main Methods:
- A differential conditioning experiment was conducted with healthy men and women.
- Neutral pictures served as conditioned stimuli (CSs), with genital vibrostimulation as the unconditioned stimulus.
- Extinction trials were extensive, and measures included physiological arousal, subjective ratings, and approach-avoidance tendencies.
Main Results:
- Participants consistently rated the CS+ as more positive and sexually arousing than the CS- throughout extinction.
- A slight behavioral tendency to approach the CS+ was observed after the extinction procedure.
- No evidence of conditioned genital sexual response was found.
Conclusions:
- Learned sexual evaluations demonstrate persistence at both subjective and behavioral levels.
- Extensive extinction procedures may not effectively modify conditioned sexual likes.
- Emotion regulation strategies might be more effective for targeting persistent unwanted sexual evaluations.
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