You might expect men and women to look at sexual photographs differently. But a new study unexpectedly found that men are more likely than women to first look at faces rather than other parts of a nude body.
Also, the women in the study spent more time than the men looking at images of couples having sex.
"Men looked at the female face much more than women, and both looked at the genitals comparably," said lead author Heather Rupp of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University.
The findings, announced today, are detailed in the journal Hormones and Behavior.
"The eye-tracking data suggested what women paid most attention to was dependent upon their hormonal state," Rupp said. "Women using hormonal contraceptives looked more at the genitals, while women who were not using hormonal contraceptives paid more attention to contextual elements of the photographs."
- Erotic Images Entice Even When Invisible
- The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts
- A Brief History of Human Sex
