Bisexuality is associated with elevated sexual sensation seeking, sexual curiosity, and sexual excitability

• We tested for elevated levels of personality traits in bisexual women and men.
• Traits tested: sexual sensation seeking, sexual curiosity, and sexual excitability.
• Elevated levels of sexual sensation seeking and curiosity in women and men.
• Elevated levels of sexual excitability in women only.
• Effects tended to be stronger for women than men.

Sexual orientation is typically assumed to be independent of factors such as personality. Although this is probably accurate for heterosexual and homosexual orientations, personality may play a role in bisexuality. It was hypothesized that bisexuality is potentiated by personality traits that allow sexual behavior to occur independently of sexual response systems that are specifically “oriented” to male or female sexual stimuli. If so, such traits should be elevated in bisexual women and men. Because female sexual response is relatively independent of the sex of the partner it was also hypothesized that such relationships would be stronger for bisexual women than bisexual men. This was tested in two online studies. Study 1 (N = 828) tested for elevated levels of two relevant personality traits; sexual sensation seeking and sexual excitability. Study 2 (N = 655) assessed sexual curiosity, and tested whether the relationship between sexual curiosity and bisexuality was independent of the Big Five. Elevated levels of sexual sensation seeking and sexual curiosity were found for bisexual women and men; only bisexual women reported elevated levels of sexual excitability. The predicted sex difference was found for each trait, and sexual curiosity was elevated independently of the Big Five.