Turning off hot feelings: Down-regulation of sexual desire using distraction and situation-focused reappraisal

Biological Psychology
Roni ShafirGal Sheppes

Abstract

Despite the frequent need to down-regulate sexual desire, existing studies are scarce, and focus on strategies that involve disengagement from processing sexual stimuli. Accordingly, the present study compared the efficacy of down-regulating sexual desire via disengagement (attentional distraction) and engagement (situation-focused reappraisal) strategies. Utilizing Event Related Potentials, we measured the Late Positive Potential (LPP) - an electro-cortical component that denotes processing of arousing stimuli, showing decreased amplitudes during successful down-regulation. Additionally, we explored whether the sexual-intensity level of stimuli (validated in a pilot study) impacts the efficacy of, and individuals' behavioral preferences for distraction and situation-focused reappraisal. Supporting our predictions, relative to passive watching, both strategies successfully attenuated self-reported desire and LPP amplitudes, with a marginal trend (p = .07) showing stronger LPP attenuation during distraction compared to reappraisal. While sexual-intensity did not moderate regulatory efficacy, as predicted, disengagement-distraction preference increased for sexually-intense relative to sexually-mild stimuli. Broad implications are...Continue Reading

Citations

May 15, 2019·PloS One·Kruti Surti, Sandra J E Langeslag
Apr 5, 2020·Journal of Clinical Medicine·Nuria Mallorquí-BaguéFernando Fernández-Aranda
Apr 1, 2020·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Shirel Dorman IlanGal Sheppes
Mar 23, 2021·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Blake BarleyAnnmarie MacNamara
Oct 21, 2020·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Ping LiWenbo Luo

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