Overview

“One of a kind – very few scholars, surprisingly, have written so engagingly on the nature and varieties of sexual attraction.” Elaine Hatfield, Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii, USA “Illuminating.” Terri L. Orbruch, Professor of Sociology, Oakland University, USA “Will make you think deeply about this rarely explored phenomenon.” Robert Scott Stewart, Professor of Philosophy, Cape Breton University, Canada “Highly recommended reading for those who want a smart, articulate, and engaging investigation of the diverse body of sexual attraction research.” Heidi Reeder, Associate Professor of Communication, Boise State University, USA We all experience it but exactly how and why does sexual attraction happen? Expert James Giles explores the universal yet highly individualized experience of being sexually attracted to another person. Incorporating interviews, research findings, and excerpts from romantic and erotic literature, lyrics, and film, Sexual Attraction: The Psychology of Allure explores a subject that is central to the human experience and highly relevant in not only personal, intimate interactions but also other relationships. Although the causes and effects of sexual attraction have been studied, sexual attraction itself—how we experience others in terms of their sexual attractiveness—remains a neglected, rarely researched topic. Philosopher and psychologist Dr. James Giles presents jargon-free information that is accessible and fascinating to the everyday reader as well as highly useful and informative to students and researchers in social psychology, sexology, sex and marital therapy, and relationship counselling. The book explores subjects and types of relationship including: · How sexual attraction is fundamentally different from other forms of interpersonal attraction · How at the heart of sexual attraction lies the experience of allure—something that makes one feel helplessly drawn toward an intimate physical joining with the sexually attractive person · Cross-sex friendships and whether women and men can ever be ‘just friends’? Can sexual relations actually enhance and strengthen the friendship without turning it into a romantic relationship? · Can you be in love with someone you don’t actually like? · Friends with benefits · Romantic partnerships

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9781440830013

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Reviews

Overall, this short book is an easy read that should be of interest to most sexologists. It should be accessible to a wide nonexpert audience. The author offers several intriguing hypotheses about the nature of sexual attraction. - PsycCRITIQUES

James Giles's Sexual Attraction: The Psychology of Allure makes a unique, interesting, and much-needed journey into blending an existing body of social scientific research with humanistic ways of knowing that includes experiential, non-empirical qualitative methods as well as original philosophic inquiry and excerpts from film, literature, and music. The resulting volume provides many good considerations for those who do empirical sexuality and relationship research as well as insights into ideas that would be difficult-if not impossible-to explore through traditional research methods. - Relationship Research News Overall, this short book is an easy read that should be of interest to most sexologists. It should be accessible to a wide nonexpert audience. The author offers several intriguing hypotheses about the nature of sexual attraction. - PsycCRITIQUES

Overall, this short book is an easy read that should be of interest to most sexologists. It should be accessible to a wide nonexpert audience. The author offers several intriguing hypotheses about the nature of sexual attraction. * PsycCRITIQUES * James Giles's Sexual Attraction: The Psychology of Allure makes a unique, interesting, and much-needed journey into blending an existing body of social scientific research with humanistic ways of knowing that includes experiential, non-empirical qualitative methods as well as original philosophic inquiry and excerpts from film, literature, and music. The resulting volume provides many good considerations for those who do empirical sexuality and relationship research as well as insights into ideas that would be difficult—if not impossible—to explore through traditional research methods. * Relationship Research News *

Author Information

James Giles, PhD, is a lecturer at the University of Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education.

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