Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Do Bisexuals Have a Bisexual Viewing Pattern?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Sexual Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Past visual attention research appears to show that bisexual men and women view erotic images differently compared to heterosexual and gay/lesbian men and women. However, none of these studies have employed analytic approaches required to determine whether these apparent bisexual viewing patterns are due to averaging together heterosexual and gay/lesbian type viewing patterns, or rather are because bisexual-identified individuals possess unique viewing patterns which are distinct from heterosexual and gay/lesbian individuals. In the current eye-tracking study, we aimed to address this question. Visual attention of 60 men (24 heterosexual, 19 gay, 17 bisexual) and 54 women (21 heterosexual, 10 lesbian, 23 bisexual) was tracked, while they viewed erotic images of nude men and women. Applying analytic approaches capable of detecting bisexual responding revealed that bisexual men, but not bisexual women, had a unique bisexual controlled attention pattern, and that neither bisexual men nor women demonstrated a unique bisexual pattern of initial attention. Our findings provide mixed evidence for a unique bisexual attentional profile in men and women.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bailey, J. M., Rieger, G., & Rosenthal, A. M. (2011). Still in search of bisexual sexual arousal: Comment on Cerny and Janssen (2011). Archives of Sexual Behavior,40(6), 1293–1295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9778-5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard, K. N., Timmers, A. D., & Chivers, M. L. (2015). Gender-specificity of genital response and self-reported sexual arousal in women endorsing facets of bisexuality. Journal of Bisexuality,15(2), 180–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chivers, M. L., Bouchard, K. N., & Timmers, A. D. (2015). Straight but not narrow; Within-gender variation in the gender-specificity of women’s sexual response. PLoS ONE,10(12), e0142575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chivers, M. L., Rieger, G., Latty, E., & Bailey, J. M. (2004). A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal. Psychological Science,15, 736–744. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00750.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, S. J., & Chivers, M. L. (2016). Gender-specificity of initial and controlled visual attention to sexual stimuli in androphilic women and gynephilic men. PLoS ONE,11(4), e0152785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, S. J., Fretz, K. M., & Chivers, M. L. (2017). Visual attention patterns of women with androphilic and gynephilic sexual attractions. Archives of Sexual Behavior,46(1), 141–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebsworth, M., & Lalumière, M. L. (2012). Viewing time as a measure of bisexual sexual interest. Archives of Sexual Behavior,41(1), 161–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freund, K., Langevin, R., Cibiri, S., & Zajac, Y. (1973). Heterosexual aversion in homosexual males. British Journal of Psychiatry,122(567), 163–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fromberger, P., Jordan, K., Steinkrauss, H., von Herder, J., Witzel, J., Stolpmann, G., & Müller, J. L. (2012a). Diagnostic accuracy of eye movements in assessing pedophilia. Journal of Sexual Medicine,9(7), 1868–1882. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02754.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fromberger, P., Jordan, K., von Herder, J., Steinkrauss, H., Nemetschek, R., Stolpmann, G., & Müller, J. L. (2012b). Initial orienting towards sexually relevant stimuli: Preliminary evidence from eye movement measures. Archives of Sexual Behavior,41(4), 919–928.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guittar, N. A. (2013). The queer apologetic: Explaining the use of bisexuality as a transitional identity. Journal of Bisexuality,13(2), 166–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299716.2013.781975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imhoff, R., Schmidt, A. F., Nordsiek, U., Luzar, C., Young, A. W., & Banse, R. (2010). Viewing time effects revisited: Prolonged response latencies for sexually attractive targets under restricted task conditions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(6), 1275–1288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, F., Sepekoff, B., & Wolf, T. J. (1985). Sexual orientation: A multi-variable dynamic process. Journal of Homosexuality, 11(1–2), 35–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lippa, R. A. (2013). Men and women with bisexual identities show bisexual patterns of sexual attraction to male and female “swimsuit models”. Archives of Sexual Behavior,42(2), 187–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lippa, R. A. (2017). Category specificity of self-reported sexual attraction and viewing times to male and female models in a large U.S. sample: Sex, sexual orientation, and demographic effects. Archives of Sexual Behavior,46(1), 167–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lykins, A. D., Meana, M., & Kambe, G. (2006). Detection of differential viewing patterns to erotic and non-erotic stimuli using eye-tracking methodology. Archives of Sexual Behavior,35(5), 569–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzouri, A., & Savic, I. (2018). Possible neurobiological underpinnings of homosexuality and gender dysphoria. Cerebral Cortex,29(5), 2084–2101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morandini, J. S., Veldre, A., Holcombe, A. O., Hsu, K., Lykins, A., Bailey, J. M., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2019). Visual attention to sexual stimuli in mostly heterosexuals. Archives of Sexual Behavior,48(5), 1371–1385. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-1419-4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira, H. M., Leal, I. P., & Maroco, J. (2010). Measuring sexual orientation of a Portuguese gay, lesbian and bisexual internet sample. Psychology of Sexualities Review, 1(1), 74–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., Cash, B. M., Merrill, S. M., Jones-Rounds, J., Dharmavaram, S. M., & Savin-Williams, R. C. (2015). Sexual arousal: The correspondence of eyes and genitals. Biological Psychology,104, 56–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2005). Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men. Psychological Science,16, 579–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01578.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., Rosenthal, A. M., Cash, B. M., Linsenmeier, J. A., Bailey, J. M., & Savin-Williams, R. C. (2013). Male bisexual arousal: A matter of curiosity? Biological Psychology,94(3), 479–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., & Savin-Williams, R. C. (2012). The eyes have it: Sex and sexual orientation differences in pupil dilation patterns. PLoS ONE,7(8), e40256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal, A., Sylva, D., Safron, A., & Bailey, J. M. (2012). The male bisexuality debate revisited: Some bisexual men have bisexual arousal patterns. Archives of Sexual Behavior,41, 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9881-7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rullo, J. E., Strassberg, D. S., & Miner, M. H. (2015). Gender-specificity in sexual interest in bisexual men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior,44(5), 1449–1457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safron, A., Klimaj, V., Sylva, D., Rosenthal, A., Li, M., Walter, M., & Bailey, J. M. (2018). Neural correlates of sexual orientation in heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual women. Scientific Reports,8(1), 673. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18372-0.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Safron, A., Sylva, D., Klimaj, V., Rosenthal, A., Li, M., Walter, M., & Bailey, J. M. (2017). Neural correlates of sexual orientation in heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men. Scientific Reports,7, 41314. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep41314.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schlomer, G. L., Bauman, S., & Card, N. A. (2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology,57, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018082.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Semon, T. L., Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A., & Bailey, J. M. (2017). Bisexual phenomena among gay-identified men. Archives of Sexual Behavior,46(1), 237–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timmers, A. D., Bouchard, K. N., & Chivers, M. L. (2015). Effects of gender and sexual activity cues on the sexual responses of women with multidimensionally defined bisexuality. Journal of Bisexuality,15(2), 154–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tollison, C. D., Adams, H. E., & Tollison, J. W. (1979). Cognitive and physiological indices of sexual arousal in homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual males. Journal of Behavioral Assessment,1(4), 305–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vásquez-Amézquita, M., Leongómez, J. D., Seto, M. C., Bonilla, M., Rodríguez-Padilla, A., & Salvador, A. (2019). Visual attention patterns differ in gynephilic and androphilic men and women depending on age and gender of targets. Journal of Sex Research, 56(1), 85–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors received a grant from the American Institute of Bisexuality for this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    James S. Morandini & Ilan Dar-Nimrod

  2. School of Psychology, The University of New England, Armidale, Australia

    Ben Spence & Amy D. Lykins

Authors
  1. James S. Morandini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ben Spence
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ilan Dar-Nimrod
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Amy D. Lykins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James S. Morandini.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no additional potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 28 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Morandini, J.S., Spence, B., Dar-Nimrod, I. et al. Do Bisexuals Have a Bisexual Viewing Pattern?. Arch Sex Behav 49, 489–502 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01514-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01514-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation