Men who think they are attractive are more likely to infer sexual interest from women

A study of heterosexual men found that they perceive stronger sexual intent in women’s behavior when they (participating men) feel stronger sexual arousal. They tended to report greater sexual arousal when shown a picture of an attractive woman than when the woman was unattractive. The paper was published in Behavioral Sciences.

Men sometimes infer sexual interest from women’s behavior even when no sexual intention is present. This is called sexual overperception. On the other hand, women tend to underperceive men’s interest in long-term commitments. In part, these situations occur because both men and women tend to rely on ambiguous social cues to infer the other party’s intentions. However, costs associated with making a mistake in judging sexual intent differ by gender.

Error management theory suggests that gender differences in perceptions appear because men and women strongly guard against costly mating mistakes. For men, this usually means making sure that an opportunity for sex is not missed. For women, this means avoiding a situation where they would have a child with a man who will not invest resources in her or her offspring.

Study author Peter O. Rerick and his colleagues wanted to explore how the attractiveness of a woman they are in contact with affects their own self-perceived physical attractiveness. They hypothesized that men will perceive themselves as more attractive if they perceive an attractive woman directing her behavior towards them (versus directing it towards another man). Their second hypothesis was that men’s self-perceived attractiveness would be positively related to their perceptions of women’s sexual interest, regardless of whether the interest is directed towards them or towards another man.

Study participants were 180 male university students who completed the study online for course credit. Their average age was 20 years. They were randomly divided into 4 groups.

In the course of the study, participants were first shown a headshot of either an attractive (2 groups) or an unattractive woman (2 groups) that was referred to as Megan. The text below the photo described Megan as a 21-year-old American with no further information. Participants rated Megan’s attractiveness.

Next, participants from one group that viewed an attractive Megan, and one group that viewed an unattractive Megan were asked to imagine Megan engaging in a series of different behaviors towards them (e.g., “She gives you her phone number”, “She invites you to her house for dinner”, “She does not resist when you initiate intercourse”). Participants’ task was to rate each of these behaviors by how much they mean that Megan wants sex.

The other two groups rated the same behaviors, but the instructions said that they were directed towards another man (e.g., “She gives a man her phone number”). At the end of the study, participants self-reported their present sexual arousal and their self-perceived physical attractiveness.

Results showed that, as expected, participating men rated the attractive Megan as more attractive than the unattractive Megan. Participating men’s interpretation of Megan’s sexual intent did not depend directly on her attractiveness. Instead, it was associated with participating men’s self-reported sexual arousal and physical attractiveness.

Men reported greater sexual arousal when they were shown the attractive Megan than when Megan was unattractive, but this effect occurred primarily when they imagined themselves as the target of her behavior. Men who reported greater sexual arousal and those who saw themselves as more attractive tended to interpret Megan’s actions as signaling stronger sexual intent.

However, contrary to the researchers’ hypothesis, men did not perceive themselves as more attractive when the attractive woman’s behavior was directed toward them. In fact, when the attractive woman’s behavior was directed toward another man, participants reported lower self-perceived physical attractiveness.

“Findings suggested that men’s self-perceptions and women’s appearance may bias men’s sexual judgment,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of nuances in social perception in mate selection contexts. However, the current study used a static picture of a woman as the main stimulus and short sentences requiring men to imagine the woman’s behavior. This is very unlike real-life situations where men have many different cues from which they can infer sexual intent and verify their interpretations.

The paper, “The Relationship Between Men’s Self-Perceived Attractiveness and Ratings of Women’s Sexual Intent,” was authored by Peter O. Rerick, Tyler N. Livingston, and Jonathan Singer.