Everything has been said on this, but not yet by everybody
, so let me weigh in:
Arousal is not attraction.
Some people are aroused by things or by situations.
Some people are empathic and share other peoples arousals and attractions.
Some people spot attractiveness without necessarily being attracted.
And the continuous spectrum thing:
One might ask similarly: Do non-autistic people exist? Do non-ingenious people exist? Do non-dumb people exist?
Introspection:
I consider myself heterosexual. This is because I so far have never been attracted to any man such that wanted sex or a romantic relation of any kind from that man. Then again, I am also not attracted to almost all women, only a few that, for whatever reason, resonate with something in me. "Chemistry". So can I exclude that I will ever have a crush on a man? I guess not.
As far as arousal goes: In pornographic depictions, I usually find it more arousing if there is at least one man involved than a solo woman or a purely lesbian kind of scene. That's not because I want to look at an attractive, naked man and fantasize about
having sex
with him, it's more that I spot the attractiveness and empathize with him (or them) having sex - I sort of imagine
myself being that porn actor.
Perhaps women are more empathic than men and thus view images of sexy women more the way I just described than many men do?
Having said all that, I suspect that a study like the one cited by the OP would score me a few notches up the ladder to being gay, but that would hardly reflect on the reality of my life and emotions and social interactions and be essentially misleading.
... such a gay response ...
