Sexual arousal by higher- and lower-ranking partner: manifestation of a mating strategy?

BACKGROUND: High hierarchical status is associated with increased reproduction success in mammals. However the subordinate males are not totally eliminated from reproduction due to mate choice and alternative male strategies. Thus; the sexual arousal by higher-ranking or lower-ranking partner in humans may represent a proximate mechanism for realizing a reproductive strategy.

AIM: To evaluate possible connection between mating strategy and sexual arousal by lower-ranking and higher-ranking partner.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Markers of possible reproductive success (the number and gender of relatives and self-reported attractiveness) were evaluated by questionnaire-based study on students (110 men and 195 women, aged 19 to 29, mean age 22.5 +/- 2.10SD).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The correlation between markers of reproductive success and the sexual arousal by lower- and higher-ranking partner.

RESULTS: Arousal by lower-ranking partner correlated positively with proportion of males in relatives (Spearman's r, males: 0.219*; females: 0.161*) and with self-reported attractiveness (males: r = 0.223*); arousal by higher-ranking partner correlated positively with self-attractiveness (females: r = 0.191*).

DISCUSSION: We found markers of reproductive success despite of reduced number of offspring in nowadays population.

CONCLUSION: The sexual arousal by lower- and/or higher-ranking partner appears to be a manifestation of a successful reproductive strategy, e.g. behavior connected to natural human behavior. Moreover, the sexual arousal by overemphasized hierarchy (e.g. dominant-slave play) considered to be a part of sadomasochistic sex (or so called BDSM) may represent an over emphasised manifestation of this reproductive strategy. *P < 0.05.