State Boredom and Sexual Arousal in Men: No Evidence for Effects on Genital and Subjective Measures

Megan Brown, Gerulf Rieger and Wijnand Van Tilburg
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Megan Brown: University of Essex
Gerulf Rieger: University of Essex
Wijnand Van Tilburg: University of Essex

Journal of Boredom Studies, 2025, vol. 3, issue 3

Abstract: Past research alleges boredom to trigger markers of sexual arousal, including sexual sensation seeking, promiscuity, and pornography consumption among men. Yet, this past work relied on self-report and did not directly investigate sexual arousal. We experimentally tested if state boredom increases male genital arousal (via penile string gauges) alongside self-reported arousal. Participants identified as exclusively heterosexual or mostly heterosexual men. They watched boredom-inducing or comparatively neutral control videos, followed by footage displaying either men or women masturbating. Bayesian tests show that despite a successful experimental induction of state boredom, participants did not display different levels of genital or subjective arousal towards preferred or less preferred targets in the boredom condition than neutral condition. Rather, results provided moderately strong evidence for the null-hypothesis. These findings suggest that previously-reported links between trait boredom and sexual sensation seeking, promiscuity, and pornography do not translate to an impact on sexual arousal at state level.

Keywords: boredom; arousal; genital arousal; emotion; sex (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dbf:jbs001:v:3:y:2025:i:3

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15709038

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