Sexual arousal and heterosexual perception.

It has been theorized that high drive initiates an "autistic" perceptual process operating in the direction of drive gratification. In the present study, it was hypothesized that (a) under conditions of high drive, perceptual distortion of drive-relevant objects occurs principally along drive-relevant dimensions; (b) the direction of distortion is toward enhancement of the object's potential for drive satisfaction; (c) the degree of accessibility of the object for potential drive gratification affects the extent to which drive-relevant characteristics of the object arc enhanced. These hypotheses were tested in a personperception situation in which level of sexual arousal and accessibility of the judged stimulus object (a prospective date) were varied. A two-factor multivariatc analysis of variance with three dependent measures indicated that arousal level of judge, accessibility of stimulus object, and dimension relevance interact in determining perception of stimulus person. This and additional findings are discussed.