Challenging Biological Justifications for the Orgasm Gap: Implications for Immutability Beliefs and Orgasm Pursuit
The orgasm gap between cisgender men and women remains a pressing gender equality issue. Researchers in the sexuality field have established that differences in orgasm frequency between men and women are not primarily due to biological cause, as the orgasm gap can be eliminated in certain contexts (...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-2023
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The orgasm gap between cisgender men and women remains a pressing gender equality issue. Researchers in the sexuality field have established that differences in orgasm frequency between men and women are not primarily due to biological cause, as the orgasm gap can be eliminated in certain contexts (e.g., masturbation). However, biological explanations for the orgasm gap are commonly endorsed by lay people. Biological justifications for gender differences in general are often connected to immutability beliefs (i.e., beliefs that gender differences are unchangeable), under a framework of gender essentialism. The current research tests an educational intervention to reduce biological justification for the orgasm gap, with the goal of reducing immutability beliefs and impacting subsequent outcomes (e.g., gender essentialism, pursuit of women’s orgasm). We recruited an online sample of cisgender, heterosexual women and men (N = 347; 56.2% women), who either received an educational research excerpt which challenged biological justification for the orgasm gap, or a control research excerpt. We found that the intervention was successful at reducing immutability beliefs for men, p < .001, but not for women. The intervention also reduced men’s, but not women’s, overall endorsement of gender essentialism, p < .001. Though there was no direct effect of condition on pursuit of women’s orgasm, mediation analyses indicated that condition impacted men’s pursuit of women’s orgasm and men’s gender essentialism through the associated decrease in immutability beliefs. These results suggest that providing information which challenges biological justification for the orgasm gap has important implications for men, and this education should be implemented on a larger scale. |
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| ISBN: | 9798371974808 |