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Anxiety can sometimes inhibit and sometimes potentiate sexual arousal. We examined whether an anxiety manipulation in a classical fear-conditioning paradigm impacts self-reported sexual arousal in men and women. University students (62 men, 61 women) underwent differential fear conditioning to erotic images; half the images were sometimes (60%) paired with a shock (CS+) and half were never paired with a shock (CS–). For each trial, participants rated their sexual arousal and anxiety in response to the image; skin conductance response (SCR) and zygomatic and corrugator activity were recorded. During acquisition, self-reported sexual arousal was lower to CS+ than CS− (inhibiting effect), but in men only. During extinction, self-reported sexual arousal was lower to CS+ than CS− for both genders. Some differences produced by CS+ and CS− were observed for SCR and zygomatic and corrugator …