The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgments made by people who are attracted to children

Lievesley, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4957-258X and Harper, CA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-0129, 2024. The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgments made by people who are attracted to children. Psychology and Sexuality. ISSN 1941-9899

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Abstract

The measurement of sexual attraction patterns has significance in relation to the assessment and treatment of people who may have caused sexual harm. However, it is also important to understand the drivers of sexual attractions within the community. In recent times there has been an increased level of interest in people with attractions to children, but minimal attention has been paid to fully understand how different indicators of age might influence their level of attraction to a range of child targets. In this paper we report three studies using online samples wherein we developed a merged person stimulus set that allowed us to manipulate the configuration of a target’s apparent age (depicted by facial features) and their physical development stage (depicted by non-facial bodily features). In Studies 1 and 2 we find that our merged person set performs comparatively well on indices of realism and estimated age, while in Study 3 we find that manipulating the apparent age of a body influences the attractiveness judgments made by people with attractions to different age groups. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of our findings within the context of accurate assessment techniques.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Psychology and Sexuality
Creators:	Lievesley, R. and Harper, C.A.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Date:	22 February 2024
ISSN:	1941-9899
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149 DOI 1858960 Other
Rights:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Psychology and Sexuality on 22/02/2024, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	08 Feb 2024 09:30
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2024 16:16
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/50823

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