Differences in Subjective Sexual Arousal in Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Lesbian Women

ABSTRACT: Although psychologists have conceptualized sexual orientation as either dichotomous or continuous, psychological studies of sexuality and sexual orientation have often included bisexuals and homosexuals in the same group, rather than treating bisexuality as a unique orientation. This study addresses the presumed uniqueness of bisexuality by testing the hypothesis that bisexual women will differ from lesbians and heterosexual women in their self-reported sexual arousal to three videos depicting different female-female and female-male sexual scenarios. Twenty participants in each group (ages 18-28) were given a self-administered questionnaire that included a consent form, a question assessing the respondent's self-identified sexual orientation, and three different pencil-and-paper measures to assess sexual arousal during and subsequent to viewing the videos. Mixed mode ANOVA revealed significant overall main effects, while pair-wise comparisons showed differences among the three groups. The finding that bisexual women differed from lesbian and heterosexual women in their arousal to the video stimuli is consistent with the concept that bisexuality is a unique orientation. Key words: Sexual arousal Sexual orientation Women Bisexuality Homosexuality Heterosexuality