LAUSR

Abstract Consistent with men's gender-specific patterns of sexual arousal, men tend to look longer at their preferred gender when viewing mixed-sex sexual stimuli. But gynephilic men do attend to males featured in sexual stimuli, and individual differences in negative affect may explain some variability in their sustained attention toward male targets. We explored the influence of homonegativity and affective reactions on visual attention toward sexual stimuli and subsequent feelings of sexual attraction. We sampled gynephilic men in two eye-tracking studies (Study 1: n = 49, Study 2: n = 38) that included measures of universalizing homonegativity, minoritizing homonegativity, and disgust to predict sustained visual attention and reported sexual attraction toward non-preferred targets in still-image and dynamic-video sexual stimuli. Greater feelings of universalizing homonegativity predicted less sustained attention toward solo non-preferred sexual targets. In dynamic stimuli depicting two non-preferred targets engaged in sexual intercourse, greater universalizing homonegativity predicted less sustained attention toward targets in the receptive role, but not in the insertive role. Greater feelings of universalizing homonegativity also predicted lower reported feelings of sexual attraction toward non-preferred targets. Results suggest that gynephilic men's attention and sexual attraction toward male sexual targets is influenced by homonegative attitudes and the target's sexual role.