Sexual Arousal and Mental Health in Bisexual Men

There is variation in the extent to which bisexual men get sexually aroused to both sexes. A different line of research suggests that they also vary in how vulnerable they are to mental health problems, compared to gay and straight men. The present study sought to investigate whether variation in bisexual men’s mental health related to their physiological sexual arousal patterns. Based on the literature one of our hypotheses was that bisexual men with bisexual arousal patterns report more mental health problems than other bisexual men, straight men, and gay men. However, an alternative hypothesis was that bisexual men who resemble gay or straight men in physiological arousal would report more mental health problems than those bisexual men who show bisexual arousal, straight men, and gay men. As part of an ongoing project, 125 men watched sexually explicit videos of women and men while their genital arousal and pupil dilation were recorded. 56 of these men also completed a survey of their mental health problems. Bisexual genital arousal was most common in men who identified as bisexual-leaning-straight. Mental health problems did not systematically vary across reported sexual orientations. Moreover, prevalence of mental health problems did not relate to differences in genital arousal patterns in bisexual men. The majority of these patterns were confirmed with pupil dilation as the measure of sexual arousal, although findings with pupil dilation were more complex than those with genital arousal.