Higher Sexual Avoidance, not Higher Pathogen Disgust, Is Associated with Lower Arousal in Women with a History of Unwanted Sex

Prior research consistently shows disgust propensity and/or state disgust correlated with lower sexual arousal; however, this work has largely excluded women with sexual trauma histories. We tested competing models of the effects of disgust on sexual arousal in women with sexual trauma histories: heightened avoidance of sexual stimuli vs. heightened affective antagonism between pathogen disgust and sexual arousal. Seventy-seven women (45 with an unwanted sexual contact history, 32 without) completed an online survey, avoidance task, and sexual arousal task following a pathogen disgust or neutral prime. We conducted preregistered and exploratory analyses of women’s self-reported arousal and behavioral avoidance of the sexual aspects of stimuli. Women who reported more unwanted sexual contact had lower subjective sexual arousal in response to sexual stimuli, particularly following a disgust prime. There was evidence of an interaction such that unwanted sexual contact history amplified the effects of disgust propensity, contributing to greater avoidance of sexual stimuli. Women with a history of forced sex had significantly higher behavioral avoidance of sexual stimuli, even when accounting for exposure to other types of unwanted sexual contact and history of pathogen exposure. Cumulative type and frequency of sexual assault may influence women’s sexual disgust, avoidance, and arousal. Lifetime history of pathogen exposure may not predict sexual disgust. Clinically, our results suggest that sexual avoidance may be a beneficial target of intervention when addressing sexual arousal concerns of survivors of unwanted sex, above and beyond reduction of sexual disgust responses.