Over the past two decades, sexual desire and desire discrepancy have become more frequently studied as have potential pharmaceutical interventions to treat low sexual desire. However, the ...complexities of sexual desire—including what exactly is desired—remain poorly understood.
To understand the object of men's and women's sexual desire, evaluate gender differences and similarities in the object of desire, and examine the impact of object of desire discrepancies on overall desire for partner in men and women in the context of long-term relationships.
A total of 406 individuals, 203 men and 203 women in a relationship with one another, completed an online survey on sexual desire.
Reports of the object of sexual desire in addition to measures of sexual desire for current partner were collected from both members of the couple.
There were significant gender differences in the object of sexual desire. Men were significantly more likely to endorse desire for sexual release, orgasm, and pleasing their partner than were women. Women were significantly more likely to endorse desire for intimacy, emotional closeness, love, and feeling sexually desirable than men. Discrepancies within the couple with regard to object of desire were related to their level of sexual desire for partner, accounting for 17% of variance in men's desire and 37% of variance in women's desire.
This research provides insights into the conceptualization of sexual desire in long-term relationships and the multifaceted nature of sexual desire that may aid in more focused ways to maintain desire over long-term relationships. Future research on the utility of this perspective of sexual desire and implications for clinicians working with couples struggling with low sexual desire in their relationships is discussed. Mark K, Herbenick D, Fortenberry D, Sanders S, and Reece M. The object of sexual desire: Examining the “what” in “what do you desire?” J Sex Med 2014;11:2709–2719.
Building on theories explaining social outcomes of economic inequality, our research examined the psychological impact of inequality on the desire for wealth and status. Our studies provide both ...experimental (Studies 1 and 3, Ns = 321 and 596) and correlational (Study 2; N = 141,477 from 73 countries and regions) evidence that higher inequality heightens people’s desire for wealth and status. Notably, this effect of inequality on desire is independent of the influence of societal wealth. Moreover, our results reveal social class differences in why inequality fuels motivations: Lower-class individuals are more likely to respond to higher inequality with a heightened desire reflecting self-improvement concerns, whereas upper-class individuals are more likely to respond with a heightened desire reflecting social comparison concerns. These findings suggest that higher inequality creates an environment of restlessness in which both the poor and the rich feel obliged to seek wealth and status, albeit for different reasons.
Getting what you want Grant, Lyndal; Phillips-Brown, Milo
Philosophical studies,
07/2020, Volume:
177, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
It is commonly accepted that if an agent wants
p
, then she has a desire that is satisfied in exactly the worlds where
p
is true. Call this the ‘Satisfaction-is-Truth Principle’. We argue that this ...principle is false: an agent may want
p
without having a desire that is satisfied when
p
obtains in any old way. For example, Millie wants to drink milk but does not have a desire that is satisfied when she drinks spoiled milk. Millie has a desire whose satisfaction conditions are what we call
ways-specific
. Fara (Philos Perspect 17(1):141–163,
2003
, Noûs 47(2):250–272,
2013
) and Lycan (Philos Perspect 26(1):201–215,
2012
, In what sense is desire a propositional attitude?, Unpublished manuscript) have also argued for this conclusion, but their claims about desire satisfaction rest solely on contested intuitions about when agents get what they want. We set these intuitions to one side, instead arguing that desire satisfaction is ways-specific by appealing to the dispositional role of desire. Because agents are disposed to satisfy their desires, dispositions provide important evidence about desire satisfaction. Our argument also provides new insight on the dispositional role of desire satisfaction.
Abstract
The Ideal Worlds Account of Desire says that S wants p just in case all of S’s most highly preferred doxastic possibilities make p true. The account predicts that a desire report ⌜S wants p⌝ ...should be true so long as there is some doxastic p-possibility that is most preferred (by S). But we present a novel argument showing that this prediction is incorrect. More positively, we take our examples to support alternative analyses of desire, and close by briefly considering what our cases suggest about the logic of desire.
Jesper Ahlin Marceta published an article in this journal in which he formulated his “argument from testability”, stating that it is impossible, at least practically, to operationalize procedural ...authenticity. That is, using procedural accounts of authenticity, one cannot reliably differentiate between authentic and inauthentic desires. There are roughly two ways to respond to the argument from testability: top-down and bottom-up. Several authors have endeavored the top-down approach by trying to show that some conceptions of authenticity might be operationalizable after all. At present, however, the bottom-up approach has not been put to the test. That is, no attempt has been made to use a currently existing assessment tool to guide the development of an account of authenticity. In this paper, I will investigate what it means to develop an account of authenticity bottom-up based on measures of concordance. More specifically, I will investigate the following three research questions. First, how do concordance and authenticity relate at a conceptual level? As crucial similarities exist between these concepts, concordance measures seem to offer a good starting point for the bottom-up approach. Second, how do judgements of concordance differ from judgements of authenticity? Both their scope and the way they are justified will turn out to be different. This suggests novel ways to react to Marceta’s argument from testability. Third, should we develop a theory of concordance? The positive answer to this question will point towards a central limitation of the bottom-up approach.
Traditional theories have focused on the intentions of lower‐class individuals to climb on the social ladder, yet they have paid relatively little attention to the motivations of upper‐class ...individuals to ascend even higher. Addressing this issue, Studies 1 and 2 provided cross‐national evidence that higher social class is associated with a greater desire for wealth and status. Moreover, by manipulating perceived social class, Studies 3 and 5 experimentally confirmed that compared to people in the lower‐class group, those in the upper‐class group express a stronger desire for wealth and status. Furthermore, in line with self‐categorization theory predictions, Studies 3–5 showed that upper‐class individuals tend to see and use wealth and status as important attributes in defining and categorizing self, and this tendency explains the effect of social class on desire for wealth and status. Together, our findings demonstrate a “having more—wanting more” relationship, and its consequences are further discussed.
While most studies on sexuality in later life report that sexual desire declines with age, little is known about the exact nature of age effects on sexual desire. Using self-reported dyadic sexual ...desire relating to a partner, dyadic sexual desire relating to an attractive person, and solitary sexual desire from a large (
N
> 8000) and age diverse (14.6–80.2 years) online sample, the current study had three goals: First, we investigated relationships between men and women’s sexual desire and age. Second, we examined whether individual differences such as gender/sex, sexual orientation, self-rated masculinity, relationship status, self-rated attractiveness, and self-rated health predict sexual desire. Third, we examined how these associations differed across sexual desire facets. On average, the associations between age and both men and women’s sexual desire followed nonlinear trends and differed between genders/sexes and types of sexual desire. Average levels of all types of sexual desire were generally higher in men. Dyadic sexual desire related positively to self-rated masculinity and having a romantic partner and solitary desire was higher in people with same-sex attraction. We discuss the results in the context of the evolutionary hypothesis that predict an increase of sexual desire and female reproductive effort prior to declining fertility. Our findings both support and challenge beliefs about gender/sex specificity of age effects on sexual desire and highlight the importance of differentiating between desire types.
Le jugement de Salomon Godbout, Jacques T; Girard, René
La Revue du MAUSS semestrielle,
05/2020, Volume:
55, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Dans cet échange croisé entre Jacques T. Godbout et René Girard, le jugement de Salomon met en question l’importance respective de la rivalité mimétique et de l’esprit du don. L’une des deux mères ...prétendues rejette la violence jusqu’à risquer de perdre son enfant pour le sauver, ce qui est contraire au désir mimétique girardien, explique Godbout ; l’autre, au contraire, s’y conforme, et Girard ne retient que cette dernière, à laquelle sa théorie s’applique. Dans sa réplique, Girard souligne que s’il accorde tant d’attention au désir mimétique (aussi banalement universel que l’amour), c’est parce qu’il passe trop souvent inaperçu. Mais, conclut aujourd’hui Godbout, tentons de sortir du faux débat selon lequel Salomon a parié soit sur l’un, soit sur l’autre. Une autre interprétation féconde du récit biblique serait que le roi Salomon, dans sa sagesse, a misé sur les deux, tout en faisant le pari de l’amour et du don.