Premium
The Principal Components of Sexual Preference
Author(s) -
MATHEWS ANDREW M.,
BANCROFT JOHN H. J.,
SLATER PATRICK
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1972.tb00775.x
Subject(s) - attractiveness , psychology , preference , sexual orientation , subject (documents) , principal component analysis , social psychology , developmental psychology , orientation (vector space) , clinical psychology , mathematics , statistics , psychoanalysis , library science , computer science , geometry
Fifty pictures of women were rated for sexual attractiveness by 75 male subjects, who were divided into groups according to occupational status and sexual orientation. A principal component analysis of the ratings revealed a general factor on which all subject groups loaded positively, and other factors which appeared to relate to specific preferences. Loadings on the latter factors significantly differentiated between the subject groups. One component (labelled ‘sexy‐sexless’) differentiated homosexual from heterosexual groups, while another (labelled ‘conventional‐unconventional’) distinguished a group of manual workers from all others.