Eye Tracking: Does Sexual Gaze Affect Reproductive Behavior?
We have all become accustomed to lives filled with stress. Modern day lifestyles are fast paced and chaotic despite the negative impact on our health. High blood pressure, obesity, and fatigue are all well known consequences, but there is more than just these. A recent publication set out to study how stress affects reproductive behavior, and gaze tracking came in handy for the testing process.
While stress is a common phenomenon in the animal world, it’s no wonder that humans have grown accustomed to living lives filled with stress as they maneuver and navigate through their daily routine. Originally, the body’s stress response was an adaptive reaction to a life-threatening situation in the wild. Stress affects energy distribution, metabolism and, as a result, increases the chance of survival, but a little known fact is that it also plays a large role in mating behavior and reproductive strategies in animals and humans.
Until now, there has been much research on the effects of stress on reproduction in general. Stress affects the reproductive functioning – physiologically speaking, the endochrine actions on the reproductive system. But stress can also influence behavior like mate choice and mating preferences. Both humans and animals exhibit preferences towards mating partners, but does stress affect mating preferences in humans?
In the study, researchers showed a group of 30 male heterosexual students with normal or corrected to normal vision a series of 36 photographs. Each photo was chosen to comprise three different images: attractive photographs of female nudes with direct gaze at the observer, attractive photographs of female nudes with their gaze directed away from the observer, and neutral pictures, such as household objects. The images were displayed on a computer screen with each participant seated in a chair and equipped with electrodes for electromyographic (EMG) measurements of the left eye.
The scientists measured for blink magnitude and gaze, observing their “startle modulation” and change in shape and intensity of gaze. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether direct gaze has an influence on the perceived pleasantness of erotic pictures, and the researchers predicted that it would. As it turns out, the startle response magnitude was larger when shown the images with direct gaze as compared to the ones without.
The researchers went on to study the effects of variations in the images shown, all the while measuring the physiological response of the student participants.
Stress influences mating preferences in humans
Related articles: