Have you ever lied on a first date? Maybe pretended you were into some jazz funk band to impress your date? Being sexually aroused might have played a role in it.
New research has shown that both men and women lie to new potential partners when primed with sexual stimuli, in order to make themselves seem more similar or more desirable.
Four experiments were conducted on heterosexual participants. They were unconsciously or consciously primed with either a neutral or sexual stimuli.
To see if these stimuli affected participants, they were asked about their thoughts on a variety of measures, as well as how many lifetime sexual partners they have had. These were measured before and after seeing their partner’s supposed preferences. The exception being their number of sexual partners, which was only on an anonymous survey (as opposed to the ones their partner might see) and in a profile which a potential partner might see. Also, those in the sexual stimuli group reported feeling higher levels of sexual arousal.
The results showed that both men and women change their attitudes to be more aligned with their partners, but more so after sexual priming. When participants were primed to think about sex they were more likely to change their answers.
However, changing to align better isn’t exactly being deceptive. The variable that showed the deception was the lifetime sexual partners. Both men and women lowered their number of lifetime sexual partners on their profile vs the anonymous survey. Again, sexual priming increased this behavior.
Researcher believe that the sexual arousal felt by participants motivates them to try to make themselves seem more desirable in order to have a better chance with a new potential partner. However, these deceptions are usually rather small, as they are likely to eventually come out during the course of a relationship.
Original Article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/dating-and-mating/202009/sex-inspires-dishonesty-in-both-men-and-women
Study:
Birnbaum, G. E., Iluz, M., & Reis, H. T. (2020). Making the right first impression: Sexual priming encourages attitude change and self-presentation lies during encounters with potential partners. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 86, 103904.
