TY - JOUR
T1 - Turning off hot feelings
T2 - Down-regulation of sexual desire using distraction and situation-focused reappraisal
AU - Shafir, Roni
AU - Zucker, Leemor
AU - Sheppes, Gal
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - 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 discussed.
AB - 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 discussed.
KW - Distraction
KW - Emotion regulation
KW - Late positive potential
KW - Reappraisal
KW - Sexual desire
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050858297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.07.007
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.07.007
M3 - מאמר
C2 - 30030166
AN - SCOPUS:85050858297
VL - 137
SP - 116
EP - 124
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
SN - 0301-0511
ER -