New Publication: Gender-Specificity of Sexual Attraction Across Cultures
- genderidentitysurv
- May 26
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 2
We are excited to announce a new publication from our lab members, Dr. Sapir Keinan-Bar, Dr. Veronica Kostenko, and Prof. Daphna Joel, recently published in The Journal of Sex Research.
The article, titled "Gender-Specificity of Sexual Attraction Across Cultures: Individual and Societal Factors," investigates the universality of gender differences in sexual attraction and explores their relations to the social construction of gender and sexuality.
Previous studies have reported that men’s sexual attraction is more gender-specific than women’s. This means men generally report stronger attraction to their preferred gender and weaker attraction to their non-preferred gender. To test this across different cultures, our researchers utilized the Gender Mosaic Cross-Cultural Dataset, analyzing responses from over 35,000 participants across 25 countries.
Key Findings
The gender differences in sexual attraction to the preferred and to the non-preferred genders, as well as in the gender-specificity of sexual attraction are evident across cultures.
Yet the magnitude of these gender differences varies greatly between countries.
This variability is related to nation-level levels of sexual drive and sexual pleasure in partnered sex as well as in negative attitudes toward homosexuality.
At the individual level, the reporting of sexual attraction was related to self-rated gender typicality (femininity for women and masculinity for men) and this association was stronger in men.
These findings demonstrate that the social construction of gender and sexuality plays a central role in gender differences in self-reported sexual attraction.
You can find the full citation and a link to the paper below:
