Study of Sexual Concordance in Men and Women with Different Typologies of Adherence to the Sexual Double Standard

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Sexual concordance (i.e., relationship between genital response and subjective sexual arousal) is higher in men than in women. Among the factors that could explain this difference would be the sexual double standard (SDS). Sexual concordance is examined by SDS typologies of adherence (egalitarian, man-favorable, and woman-favorable). METHOD: During exposure to a film with sexual content, genital response (penile circumference/vaginal pulse amplitude) and self-reported sexual arousal were recorded in 104 young adults (42 men and 62 women), distributed into SDS typologies of adherence on the basis of their scores on the Sexual Double Standard Scale. RESULTS: Sexual concordance was obtained in men and women with egalitarian and man-favorable typology. Subjective sexual arousal explained a significant percentage of the variance in genital response in the egalitarian typology (men: R(2) = .32, p < .01; women: R(2) = .19, p < .05) and man-favorable typology (men: R(2) = .21, p < .05; women: R(2) = .23, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Agreement between genital responsiveness and subjective sexual arousal depends on DES adherence typology.