SciTechBits – Interesting Bits of Science & Technoglogy Served For You!

When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was caught red-handed returning from a tryst with his Argentine mistress last June, he told the Associated Press that he had met his “soul mate.” His choice of words seemed to suggest that having a deep emotional and spiritual connection with Maria Belen Chapur somehow made his sexual infidelity to his wife Jenny Sanford less tawdry.

What the two-timing governor didn’t understand is that most women view emotional infidelity as worse, not better, than sexual betrayal. This may explain why Hillary Clinton stayed with Bill Clinton and seemed unconcerned about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. Research has documented that most men become much more jealous about sexual infidelity than they do about emotional infidelity. Women are the opposite, and this is true all over the world. The prevailing theory is that the difference has evolutionary origins: Men learned over eons to be hyper-vigilant about sex because they can never be absolutely certain they are the father of a child, while women are much more concerned about having a partner who is committed to raising a family.

A group of researchers attempted to see “Are people really aroused physiologically when their mind thinks so”. The answer to this question showed clear difference between the sexes. Men really mean it, while women do not.

Human sexual response is a complex of physiological, emotional and cognitive responses. Researchers identified 134 previous studies which dealt with similar research, to perform a meta-analysis. This included 2,500 women and 1,900 men. The participants were exposed to various sexual stimuli and were asked how aroused they felt. At the same time their physiological reaction (erection for men and genital blood flow for women) was measured.

Statistical analysis showed that men were able to clearly sync their mind with the body ie., when they told they were horny, their penis was really erect, however women often reported of being horny, while the physiological measure did not match it.

However, this measurement was done at different time points. When measured during the participants were receiving the stimuli, there was no significant difference between the sexes. The difference was when the participants were asked to rank their arousal at the end of the stimuli.

The researchers believe that, accurate measurement of arousal will play a significant part in the improvement of sexual science.

So guys, she is not only faking her orgasm, she doesn’t even know if she is horny at all!

Journal Reference: doi:10.1007/s10508-009-9556-9

How different are the dreams of college students today as compared to 40 yrs back? How are men and women’s dreams different? Is there a particular subject dominating the dreams of college students? Who is having more sex in their dreams? Who is shopping more?

This article is based on the research article recently published by Dr. Raymond Rainville and his colleague. Dr.Raymond passed away this October. He was an expert in the study of sleep and dreams, and wrote a volume entitled “Dreams Across the Life Span”. May his soul rest in peace.

Eighty different dream diaries from students attending a course on sleep and dreams where collected from 1997 to 2007, with each diary consisting at least 20 dream reports (2400 dreams). The dreams were then coded. The codes include: food sharing, potential mate, competition, wedding, shopping, pregnancy, male bonding, multiple self-representation, religion/philosophy, and wild vs. pet animal dreams. Also, each dream was categorized as recognizable or anonymous. Wherein, recognizable dreams included either family or friends, while anonymous dreams included strangers.

Using the data collected along with dream data available from 1966 (HVDC), Dr.Raymond and team performed vigorous comparisons in multiple perspectives. We here present you with some of the vital information extracted from these comparisons.

What is the exact influence of genes on mate choices of humans? Does it affect males and females differently? Does the affect change based on whether the mate is for a short term relationship or long term relationship?

It is well known that genes located at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have a strong influence on human mate choices. The MHC is the densest part of the human genome and plays significant role in the auto immune system of humans. In order to improve the immunity capabilities, the MHC is believed to affect the mate choices, looking out for more a more different/diverse genetic partner, as this brings more new auto immune capabilities to their offspring. However this affect has not been analyzed across different sexes and for different relationship contexts.

Researchers from Australia recruited participants who were told to rate a huge collection of facial photos of the opposite sex for which genetic information was available. The rating was done on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not attractive at all. The rating was done both for a short-term and a long-term relationship. All of the photos were with neutral facial expression and with hair and rest of the body not shown.

Physical attractiveness is always associated with mating success; however research has already shown that it also correlates to women’s capability of having kids and men’s semen quality. A recent research has focused on analyzing the number of kids born based on the physical attractiveness of the participants and has interesting results.

Many studies have shown increased mating success with increased physical attractiveness, however this cannot lead to a conclusion that higher physical attractiveness would result in more number of kids. For example, several researchers have shown that when people seek partners to have kids, they do not prefer extremely attractive partners; as such partners are more likely to leave them or have extra marital affairs. This factor shows that, it is not necessary that increased attractiveness leads to more number of kids.

Yearbook photos, fertility and marital history data of 2241 (1244 women and 997 men) people aged 53 to 56 years were collected. Thirty three judges from ages 63 to 97 rated all of the yearbook photos (each picture gets rated 6 times) for their attractiveness, based on face. Upon this ranking, the participants were grouped as not attractive, moderately attractive, attractive and very attractive. The association between attractiveness and years of marriage, parental socioeconomic status & education level was estimated using regression analysis to provide for the necessary adjustment, these factors would contribute to the number of kids. Following which, detailed statistical analysis was performed to study the relationship between the age at which the participants had their first kid, interbirth interval etc and the physical attractiveness.

Is it the face or the body which attracts you? Does this attraction change based on whether it is for a long-term relationship or short-term relationship?

Breast size, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), symmetry, volume-to-height ratio, foot size are some of the factors which have been studied for their impact on attractiveness. However very few studies analyzed these factors in relation, as most studies analyzed just one factor at a time. Of the very few studies which analyzed these factors in relationship, a researcher proposed that men could use women’s WHR as a ‘wide first-pass filter,’ screening out those women who may be unhealthy, have low reproductive capability, or be pregnant. However, a different group of researchers found no evidence for such a role. Researchers also found that the minimum acceptable levels for a number of factors increased with the length of relationship sought, but each factor was different in the way it increased and was different for each sex.

Women’s behavior towards men or sexual interest across the menstrual cycle have been studied previously. For first time, researchers in France have tried to find the change in women’s receptivity to an explicit courtship solicitation across different phases of the menstrual cycle.

Several studies have shown that during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle – women show greater preference for facial masculinity, taller men, men expressing dominant behavior, male voice pitch, olfactory cues about body symmetry etc. Researchers term this as the “rose-tinted-spectacle” effect. It is also found that during the fertile phase, women are more prone to fantasizing about having sexual intercourse with a man other than their current partner, their overall interest and thoughts about sex peaked, they dress more provocatively, their frequency of intercourse was very high at ovulation & declined abruptly thereafter and women initiated sexual activity peaked during ovulation. However no research was conducted to directly test the receptivity of women to courtship applications, across different stages of the menstrual cycle.