Viewing time tasks using still pictures to assess age
and gender sexual interests have been well validated and are
commonlyused.Theuseoffilmclipsinaviewingtimetaskwould
open up interesting possibilities for the study of sexual interest
toward sexual targets or activities that are not easily captured in
still pictures. We examined the validity of a viewing time task
using film clips to assess sexual interest toward male and female
targets, in a sample of 52 young adults. Film clips produced longer
viewing times than still pictures. For both men and women, the
indices derived from the film viewing time task were able to
distinguish individuals who identified as homosexual (14 men, 8
women) from those who identified as heterosexual (15 men, 15
women), and provided comparable group differentiation as
indices derived from a viewing time task using still pictures.
Men’s viewing times were more gender-specific than those
of women. Viewing times to film clips were correlated with par-
ticipants’ ratings of sexual appeal of the same clips, and with
viewing times to pictures. The results support the feasibility of a
viewing time measure of sexual interest that utilizes film clips and,
thus, expand the types of sexual interests that could be inves-
tigated (e.g., sadism, biastophilia).

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• The Use of Film Clips in a Viewing Time Task of Sexual Interests