Pupillary Responses of Repressers and Sensitizers to Sexual and Aversive Stimuli

Abstract

The pupillary responses of repressers, neutrals and sensitizers were compared across neutral, aversive, male sexual and female sexual pictorial stimuli. The a priori hypothesis that sensitizers would evidence a greater magnitude of pupillary dilation (or perceptual vigilance) than repressers to the sexual and aversive stimuli was not confirmed. The possibility that variability in pupillary responses rather than directionality might provide a more meaningful index of threat reaction was also contraindicated insofar as all assumptions regarding homogeneity of variance were found to be tenable. A significant effect did obtain, however, for the stimulus-content variable corroborating previous research findings that pupillary dilation is related to the affective arousal value of visual stimulation independent of brightness contrast.