Sexual Orientation Eyes, Pupil Dilation Used to Measure Arousal, Says Study
Researchers have discovered that pupil dilation could be a more accurate way to measure human arousal and gauge sexual orientation.
Past methods of measuring sexual attraction and human arousal have often consisted of large amounts of machinery being tied up to very personal parts of the human body. Such projects didn't sit well with many, which led to a number of unwilling study subjects.
A second try consisted of merely asking people to identify what aroused them, but it appeared that many had a hard time being truthful or were at times unaware. Now, however, researchers have reconsidered an ancient belief, only to discover that it may be the most accurate form of measurement yet.
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As far back as the 16th century, humans believed that the size of one's pupil had an impact on sexual attractiveness, Now, a study by Ritch Savin-Williams, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University, validates such claims. It appears that human sexuality may be more accurately measured by measuring the dilation of a pupil.
For the study, 165 men and 160 women volunteers were asked to watch separate one-minute videos of a man masturbating, a woman masturbating and neutral landscape scenes. A gaze-tracking camera was used to record a change in pupil size for each volunteer while they watched all three videos.
The study results revealed similar conclusion to previous studies held in the past. Men who identified themselves as heterosexual had a larger pupil dilation to a woman masturbating, whereas men who identified themselves as homosexual reacted to the video of the man, and bisexual individuals responded equally to both.
Women, on the other hand, offered results that have stumped scientists for years. Most women who identified themselves as, homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual reacted the same to both the male and female videos.
While scientists have yet to explain this phenomenon in women, some suggest that the reaction may be due to the fact that women have faced the risk of rape for years and evolved to prepare themselves.
In either case, both groups provided results consistent enough to suggest that arousal can in fact be measured through the eyes.
