A recent study suggests that temporary states of sexual arousal can cause men to sexually objectify women, shifting their focus toward sexualized physical traits and away from psychological characteristics. This shift happens independently of a man’s general personality traits, providing evidence that momentary biological states play a central role in how people perceive others. The study was published in The Journal of Sex Research.
The authors of the new study sought to better understand the immediate, short-term causes of sexual objectification. Sexual objectification happens when a person is reduced to their sexual function, and their mental and emotional characteristics are ignored. In heterosexual contexts, women predominantly suffer the negative consequences of this behavior, including reduced self-esteem, feelings of anger, and depression.
Past research has focused heavily on stable personality traits to explain why men objectify women. These traits include characteristics like narcissism, psychopathy, and a preference for social dominance. Many existing theories also view objectification primarily as a tool men use to assert power and maintain dominance over women.
While those personality and power dynamics remain relevant, the authors suggest that current theories might miss an important piece of the puzzle by ignoring temporary physical states. Arnaud Wisman, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Kent, focuses his research on how evolutionary concepts apply to social psychology. “A central idea in my work is that sexual arousal is relatively underestimated as a driver of human motivation and cognition, likely in part because it remains a socially sensitive or taboo topic,” Wisman explained.
The researchers proposed the Arousal Hypothesis of Sexual Objectification. This hypothesis posits that humans evolved to pay attention to physical traits associated with mating when they are sexually aroused. “From an evolutionary perspective, however, sexual motivation is fundamental to the survival of the species, so we would expect it to have a powerful influence on cognition and behavior,” Wisman noted.
According to this evolutionary perspective, focusing on physical attributes during moments of arousal historically helped ancestors evaluate potential mates and orient themselves toward reproduction. The researchers wanted to test whether this temporary mating mindset directly increases objectification, regardless of a man’s underlying personality. “Much of my recent research therefore focuses on how sexual arousal shapes perception, judgment, and decision-making in systematic ways,” Wisman said.
To explore this hypothesis, Wisman and his colleague, Andrew G. Thomas, conducted four separate experiments involving a total of 675 heterosexual men. In the first experiment, the researchers recruited 154 men through an online platform. The participants first completed questionnaires assessing their baseline mood and their willingness to engage in casual sex without commitment.
The men also completed a survey measuring Dark Triad traits. The Dark Triad refers to three personality traits associated with manipulative and callous behavior, which are Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Afterward, the participants were randomly assigned to one of two visual conditions.
In the sexual arousal condition, the men viewed 15 erotic images and 15 erotic animated images. In the neutral arousal condition, participants viewed images of people engaging in arousing but non-sexual activities, like bungee jumping or cliff diving. This allowed the scientists to separate the effects of sexual arousal from general excitement.
Afterward, the participants completed a task designed to measure their current state of sexual objectification. In this task, the men rated how desirable they found ten physical sexual attributes, such as being curvy, compared to ten mental attributes, such as intelligence and empathy. The researchers found that sexually aroused men showed a greater preference for women’s sexual physical attributes over psychological ones.
This effect remained significant even when the scientists controlled for the participants’ relationship status and Dark Triad traits. “One notable finding was that the effect of sexual arousal emerged even when controlling for personality traits,” Wisman explained. “This suggests that situational factors can play a substantial role independently of stable individual differences, which are often the primary focus in this area of research.”
The second experiment aimed to refine these findings by testing whether sexual arousal simply makes men more interested in human bodies in general. The researchers recruited 160 heterosexual men and followed a similar procedure as the first experiment. This time, the objectification task included neutral physical attributes, such as knees and elbows, alongside the sexualized physical traits and mental traits.
The authors found that sexual arousal did not increase the men’s preference for neutral physical attributes. Instead, the heightened arousal specifically increased their preference for sexualized physical traits compared to mental characteristics. Once again, personality traits predicted higher overall levels of objectification, but they did not alter the direct impact of the sexual arousal manipulation.
In the third experiment, the scientists explored the difference between temporary states of objectification and stable personality traits. They recruited another 160 heterosexual men and included a measure of social dominance orientation. This concept describes a person’s preference for inequality among social groups, where some groups are at the top and others are at the bottom.
Alongside the task measuring temporary objectification, the participants also completed a questionnaire measuring their general, everyday tendency to objectify women. The researchers found that viewing the erotic images increased temporary state objectification, replicating the previous two experiments. However, the sexual arousal manipulation did not change the men’s scores on the general trait objectification questionnaire.
This finding provides evidence that sexual objectification is not just a fixed personality trait. Instead, it is also a dynamic state that fluctuates based on immediate motivational contexts, such as feeling sexually aroused. “Our findings suggest that objectification can, in some contexts, reflect a shift in perceptual focus toward physical features relevant for sexual attraction,” Wisman noted. “In this sense, it is not simply a stable trait, but a state-dependent process linked to underlying motivational systems such as sexual arousal.”
The fourth experiment tested whether an empathy exercise could reduce the objectifying effects of sexual arousal. The researchers recruited 201 heterosexual men. In addition to the arousal manipulation, the participants were randomly assigned to either an empathy condition or a neutral control condition.
In the empathy condition, the men were asked to write about a recent situation where a woman experienced a challenge, focusing on how she might have felt. In the neutral condition, the participants simply described the room they were currently sitting in. The scientists also measured the men’s Dark Triad traits and their casual sexual attitudes.
The researchers found that the empathy exercise generally reduced sexual objectification. When accounting for Dark Triad traits, empathy appeared to buffer the impact of sexual arousal. For men in the neutral writing condition, sexual arousal predicted increased objectification.
For men in the empathy condition, this link between arousal and objectification disappeared. However, the men who scored very high in Dark Triad traits exhibited high levels of objectification regardless of the empathy exercise or their state of arousal. This suggests that empathy interventions might be promising, but their success tends to depend on a person’s underlying capacity for empathy.
While this research provides new insights, it has a few potential limitations. The researchers focused exclusively on heterosexual men, as men are most often the agents of objectification in heterosexual contexts. “Importantly, emerging research indicates that this mechanism is not necessarily limited to men; under certain conditions, women may also show increased attention to male physical attributes,” Wisman said. “At the same time, it is essential to distinguish between the underlying perceptual process and its social consequences.”
The experiments also relied on visual images to induce sexual arousal. Real-world sexual arousal often involves multiple senses, so future studies might benefit from using audio or immersive scenarios to see if the effects are stronger. Additionally, the study relied on self-reported measures of sexual arousal. People are not always perfectly aware of their own physical responses, which means subjective ratings might include some bias.
When applying evolutionary concepts to human behavior, researchers caution against assuming that natural biological processes are inherently good. “It is important not to confuse what is with what ought to be,” Wisman explained. “Demonstrating that certain perceptual tendencies exist does not imply that they are desirable or acceptable. For example, even if aggression has innate components, it does not follow that aggression is therefore good. Questions about what is appropriate depend on social norms and cultural values, not simply on whether a tendency has underlying psychological or biological roots.”
Addressing temporary states of arousal may offer a new path for reducing sexual harm. Programs that teach emotional regulation and help individuals recognize how arousal shifts their attention might be more effective than trying to change deep-seated beliefs. Recognizing the role of physical states in shaping perception allows for more nuanced intervention strategies in the future.
“My broader goal is to further integrate sexual arousal into our understanding of human motivation and cognition,” Wisman said. “In particular, I am interested in how sexual motivation shapes everyday perception, judgment, and behavior, and how these state-driven processes interact with more stable individual differences.”
The researchers hope to continue building on these findings. “A broader aim of this research is to move toward a more integrated understanding of human mating behavior, in which stable traits and temporary motivational states are seen as jointly shaping behavior, rather than as competing explanations,” Wisman concluded.
The study, “Objects of Desire: The Role of Sexual Arousal in the Sexual Objectification of Women by Men,” was authored by Arnaud Wisman and Andrew G. Thomas.
