A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire

by Ogi Ogas

  37 “I do have a bit of a foot fetish” http://www.playboy.co.uk/the-articles/interview/78872/3/Dirty-Dozen-Jack-Black/commentsPage/1/contentPage/1, retrieved on August 29, 2010.

  37 explaining the widespread male interest in feet Krafft-Ebing & Rebman (1906). In pornography, it’s quite common for actresses to keep their high heels on during sex. Many men find this arousing. However, men typically do not keep their footwear on during sex, and when they do, women frequently urge men to take them off, including their socks.

  38 rate small female feet as more attractive Fessler et al. (2005). Another study found similar results in Austria and Canada: Voracek et al. (2007).

  38 additional clues supporting an innate male interest in foot cues Personal e-mail communications, June 2010.

  39 searches for foot erotica are highly correlated with searches for bondage and submission porn The expected number of overlapping searchers for feet and domination/submission searchers in the AOL data set: 1.40. Obtained: 34.

  39 stockings are also highly correlated with sexual searches for feet The expected number of overlapping searchers for feet and pantyhose/ stocking searchers in the AOL data set: 0.17. Obtained: 13.

  “Ludacris: I have. I try not to judge. I let God judge. But I definitely love girls with beautiful feet. I have a foot fetish. Messed up feet man, sometimes she can trick me and just wear boots and not even show her feet. But when I see the feet, it’s a wrap. And I don’t like girls with hairy legs. I kind of like it to be nice and smooth. A little hair never hurt anybody. But when it gets a little too much, that’s when it’s not good anymore.”

  39 “I told him we’re all gay, buddy” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811045/. Quotes retrieved on August, 30, 2010

  40 45 percent of men wanted a larger penis Lever et al. (2006).

  40 men consistently direct their gaze to the male crotch Nielsen & Pernice (2009). Also worth considering: Ponseti et al. (2006): The temporal-occipital junction is hypothesized to respond to sexual stimuli. In homosexual men, it responds strongly to penises, but not to vaginas. In heterosexual men, however, it responds to both vaginas and penises. (In heterosexual women, it responds to penises, but not vaginas.)

  40 twenty-one feature close-up shots of a penis We downloaded the one hundred highest-rated images on Fantasti.cc on May 10, 2009. We submitted these images to workers on Amazon Turk. There were three taggers for each image, and we counted any tag that was shared by two or more raters (e.g., “close-up of penis”).

  40 .2 percent of men wish they had a smaller penis Lever et al. (2006).

  40 9 percent of women who wish they had smaller breasts http://www.mynippon.com/women/bsize.htm, retrieved on August 29, 2010. There were 144,000 breast reductions in 2004, according to: http://www.imageps.com/pdf/Liposuction%20Breast%20Recuction.pdf.

  40 more than six times the number of searches for “big dick” “Big dick” searches: 47,476. “Small dick” searches: 7,861.

  40 1,072 Web sites in the Alexa Adult List Another 313 gay Web sites are devoted to large penises.

  40 Mr. Amish User #2567521.

  41 One possible explanation may lie with our primate cousins “Anyways, if that isn’t enough bad behavior for you, think about this: macaque males will attack their enemy when he is at his weakest: during orgasm. Attackers often use considerable cunning to get near their victim without arousing any suspicion. They may feign indifference by barely glancing at him, digging casually in the sand or pretending to collect handfuls of pebbles. But the moment their victim ejaculates, they jump him, hitting, biting and tugging at his fur.” http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13618502.900-science-macaque-attacks-succeed-best-during-sex-.html

  41 erect penis can provoke hostility and attacks Edwards (1997).

  41 a visual cue that motivates males to copulate Pound (2002).

  41 visible sign of a male’s general health Dawkins (2006) [1978], endnote, p. 158. “It is not implausible that, with natural selection refining their diagnostic skills, females could glean all sorts of clues about a male’s health, and robustness of his ability to cope with stress, from the tone and bearing of his penis.”

  41 “the fondling of the penis and scrotum” Bagemihl (1999).

  41 among the Australian Walbiri and Aranda people Bagemihl (1999).

  42 men have inherited our primate cousins’ attentiveness to the penis Some pictures and a description are contained here: http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/ethnobotany/Yali2.pdf, retrieved August 29, 2010.

  42 what he saw on 1,276 consecutive Chat Roulette sessions http://www.cpeterson.org/2010/02/12/dispatches-from-the-front-12-hours-on-chatroulette/, retrieved on August 29, 2010.

  “1276 cams viewed:

  Conversations: 34

  Avg. Conversation Duration: 23.7 sec

  Long: 5 min 56 sec

  298 naked masturbating men

  678 non masturbating males

  152 fake cams

  148 females or mixed m/f boobs shown you ask? 0.0

  EDIT: Cum shots: 2

  man having sex with raccoon viewed 23 times.

  Not counted: repeats, no cam, empty rooms, people with dolls and signs.” One person even developed software to track penis sightings on Chat Roulette: http://chatroulettecockmap.com/.

  A video of people counting penises during five minutes on Chat Roulette can be found here: http://mprodgers.posterous.com/chatroulette-challenge-how-many-penises-can-y. The total count of Chat Roulette sessions that contained nudity or actions of a sexual nature: 14 penises and a masturbating girl.

  42 an image of their penis as their avatar We collected 5,626 male avatars and 958 female avatars from Fantasti.cc in May 2010 and had three workers on Amazon Turk tag each image according to its visual category (e.g., “penis”). We then categorized and counted those avatars where two or more workers applied the same tag.

  42 On reddit’s heterosexual Gone Wild forum We downloaded 768 images from http://www.reddit.com/r/gonewild in May 2010 and submitted them to three Amazon Turk raters. We used ratings where two or more workers used the same tag to annotate the image.

  42 clinical psychiatrists do not consider them dangerous Levine et al. (2010).

  42 the urge to exhibit oneself Leitenberg and Henning (1995). “Freund, Scher,and Hucker (1984) did not find any difference in arousal to consenting scenes between exhibitionists and a control group of nonoffenders. Both groups showed greatest arousal to consenting intercourse imagery. A subsequent study conducted by Marshall, Payne, Barbaree, and Eccles (1991) found that only 13.6% of exhibitionists had greater arousal to cues of exposure than to cues of consenting sexual activity. However, 34% of the exhibitionists but none of the controls had a response to the exposure stimuli that was at least 70% of the response to normal consenting stimuli. In addition, as a whole, the exhibitionists showed greater arousal than the control participants to the exposure scenes. Even so, Marshall, Payne, et al. (1991) concluded that the importance of deviant sexual arousal in exhibitionism is exaggerated.” Contrary to what one might expect, voyeurs rarely go to strip shows, look at pornography, or attend nudist camps. Yalom (1960), Sagarin (1973).

  42 “The act was more magical than sexual” Rentzel (1973).

  43 released the floodgates on Japanese animated erotica http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1999-pornography-rape-sex-crimes-japan.html, retrieved on August 30, 2010. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/02/15/entertainment/entertainment_30065550.php, retrieved on August 29, 2010.

  44 Her voice is extremely high-pitched Bryant & Haselton (2009). Also see http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/cat_brain_sexuality.html, retrieved on August 30, 2010.

  44 sometimes longer than a girl’s arm cf. http://www.sayhentai.com/.

  CHAPTER 3

  45 “given enough time, I’m going to have sex with it” Joe Rogan’s Shiny Happy Jihad (2007).

  “We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation.”—Lily Tomlin.

&
nbsp; 45 What does a hen need to turn a rooster on? From a paper with one of the most unintentionally amusing titles in biology: Carbaugh, B. T., M. W. Schein, et al. “Effects of Morphological Variations of Chicken Models on Sexual Responses of Cocks.” Animal Behaviour 10(3–4): 235–238.

  45 a red comb. Cornwallis & Birkhead. (2007).

  45 Turkeys are even less discriminating Schein & Hale (1957), Schein & Hale (1958).

  46 bigger and brighter the fake butt Girolami & Bielert (1987).

  46 far more men than women obsessed with body parts See http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/54866, retrieved on August 30, 2010. “Paraphilias are predominantly male sexuality disorders with an estimated sex differences ratio of 20:1 in sexual masochism. (The other paraphilias are almost never diagnosed in females, although some cases have been reported.)”

  46 Male arousal itself relies on two structures located in the subcortex Pfaus (2009).

  46 the amygdala and the hypothalamus Karama et al. (2002), Hamann et al. (2004), Ferretti et al. (2005), Walter et al. (2008), Schiffer et al. (2008).

  46 men remember more visual details from sexual encounters “Men report more sexual fantasies than women; however, women may not report sexual fantasies as frequently because they do not realize that they are sexually aroused by certain romantic images or because they simply do not consider romantic fantasies without explicit sexual acts to be sexual fantasies even if they are sexually arousing.” Leitenberg and Henning (1995).

  46 use more visual descriptions than stories written by women See discussions and analysis in Chapters 5,6, 7, and 11.

  46 “Martha Stewart” searchers were four times more likely The expected overlap of “Martha Stewart” and “porn” searchers in the AOL data set, assuming independence: 90.40. Obtained: 75 (not different from random). The expected overlap of “Martha Stewart” and “stories” searchers in the AOL data set, assuming independence: 24.70. Obtained: 85. Worth considering: AOL user #10193632, who searches for Martha Stewart recipes and food sex fetishes.

  46 swiftly experiences physical and psychological arousal Toates (2009).

  46 Male arousal itself relies on two structures Pfaus (2009). “Brain dopamine systems (incertohypothalamic and mesolimbic) that link the hypothalamus and limbic system appear to form the core of the excitatory system. This system also includes melanocortins, oxytocin, and norepinephrine. Brain opioid, endocannabinoid, and serotonin systems are activated during periods of sexual inhibition, and blunt the ability of excitatory systems to be activated.”

  47 their sexual motivation pathways have more connections Becker. (2009), Joyal et al. (2007), Baird et al. (2004), Stark (2005), Pfaus (2009), Toates (2009), Walter et al. (2008). Greater male sex drive and sociosexuality were found across many diverse cultures in Lippa (2009).

  47 men’s brains are designed to objectify females “The notion that Playboy turns women into sex objects is ridiculous. Women are sex objects.”—Hugh Hefner

  47 The famous 26,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf statuette A photo and description can be found here: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfdiscovery.html.

  47 The 40,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels A photo and description can be found here: http://www.livescience.com/history/090513-first-figure.html.

  47 twenty-three feature close-ups of female anatomy We downloaded the one hundred highest-rated images on Fantasti.cc on May 10, 2009. We submitted these images to workers on Amazon Turk. There were three taggers for each image, and we counted any tag that was shared by two or more raters (e.g., “close-up of penis”).

  47 zettai ryouiki, translated as “the absolute territory” http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/09/06/favourite-fetishes-of-japanese-men/, http://burogublog.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/the-art-and-science-of-zettai-ryouiki/, http://www.facebook.com/ZettaiRyouiki?v=photos, http://zettairyouikicafe.wordpress.com/category/zettai-ryouiki, http://whatjapanthinks.com/image10/zettai-ryoiku.jpg.

  48 “socks and skirt are usually darker shades” http://animedesho.animeblogger.net/?p=2585, retrieved on August 30, 2010.

  48 categorize the bewitching strip of skin into six different types See http://burogublog.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/the-art-and-science-of-zettai-ryouiki/.

  48 in order to derive a “golden mean “A Mathematical Analysis and Alternative of the Zettai Ryouiki Ratio,” on http://kevo.dasaku.net/?p=92, retrieved August 30, 2010.

  48 “memorizing this formula” Quote from DarkMirage on http://burogublog.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/the-art-and-science-of-zettai-ryouiki/, retrieved August 30, 2010.

  48 belly is a common male obsession Aki Sinkkonen of the University of Helsinki has suggested that navels are used to attract potential mates. His hypothesis “makes a lot of biological sense,” according to Gerald Weissmann of the New York University School of Medicine. We have doubts.

  48 claimed to be aroused by a woman’s earlobe Dalí (2004).

  49 experiment run by psychologists Joseph Plaud and James Martini Plaud & Martini (1999).

  50 or a box of Kleenex “Few people are turned on by doorknobs, bedroom dressers, or bathroom fixtures, even though these cues are often in the environment when sexual arousal and orgasm take place. Instead, there is probably a biological preparedness as well as a socialization process.” Leitenberg & Henning (1995).

  50 sexual interests in men first form during adolescence Woodson (2002).

  50 what neuroscientists call a critical period “The most plausible suggestion, in my view, is that males actually do have a brief period of plasticity during childhood, after which the sexual patterns are reasonably rigid.” Baumeister (2000).

  51 same pattern of irreversible male sexual imprinting Kendrick et al. (1998). For sexual imprinting in other animals see Woodson (2002).

  52 “I don’t know why I like breasts” Mitch Fatel, Miniskirts and Muffins.

  53 Chaminda was a young Buddhist Dewaraja & Money (1986). The subject’s name is not provided.

  54 a name for the oversized parts of female anatomy Thornhill & Gangestad (2008). “If mammary glands were no longer directly or indirectly selected in descendants, they would likely degrade through mutation and drift if neutral.”

  Gottschall (2007). Also consider: Hooper & Miller (2008).

  54 indicate how many years of healthy childbearing remain Thornhill & Gangestad (2008) refer to future fertility as “residual reproductive value” or RRV.

  54 men should find visual cues associated with youth Symons (1979).

  55 “would have had more living relatives to invest in” Abramson & Pinkerton (1995).

  55 age of first menstruation is happening earlier Clavel-Chapelon & Grp (2002). “There was thus a steady increase in the interval between age at menarche and at onset of regular cycling, mainly due to an increase in the percentage of women in whom regular cycling started at least 5 years after menarche (from 9.0% among women born in 1925–1929 to 20.8% in those born in 1945–1950). The increase in the interval between menarche and onset of regular cycling was even greater among women with a late menarche.”

  55 Male chimps do not find adolescents sexually attractive Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  55 mixed mating strategies Buss (2003).

  56 the most attractive ones received jewelry Personal telephone communications with Steve Lightspeed, founder and owner of Lightspeed, August 2009.

  56 influenced by the same molecule: estrogen The discussion of estrogen-based female ornamentation is taken mainly from Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  57 estrogen limits the growth of foot bones Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  57 prefer women who weigh a pound more Personal e-mail communication, March 2010.

  57 Breast size is not correlated with milk production Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  58 went from 36B in 1997 to 34D today Mackay (2000).

  58 the baby geese will imprint upon the scientist Lorenz (1935).

  59 “Smaller breasted women just look better to me!!!” http://www.answerba
g.com/q_view/863803#ixzz0y6vp8qIS, retrieved on August 30, 2010.

  60 Male desire is instantly activated by visual cues Ponseti et al. (2006). “We reasoned that the observation of sexually arousing stimuli may cause automatic activation of motor representations in the PMv because exposure to visual sexual stimuli is frequently followed by sexual behavior.”

  60 “my mother’s decapitated head” Louis C.K. Chewed Up (2008).

  CHAPTER 4

  62 Women were not allowed to dine at the Faculty Club Hatfield’s story is from Commentary, HBES E-Newsletter (Human Behavior and Evolution Society), Summer 2007, pp. 1–10. Also personal e-mail communication with Elaine Hatfield, August 12, 2010.

  64 Hatfield and fellow psychologist Russell Clark Clark & Hatfield (1989).

  65 Hatfield and Clark couldn’t get these dramatic results published Clark & Hatfield (2003).

  65 study was replicated in Belgium, Denmark, and Germany Molzer (2003), Voracek et al. (2005), Voracek et al. (2006). According to Elaine Hatfield (personal e-mail communication, September 29, 2010), the study was also replicated by Charlotte De Backer, Ghent University, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences.

  65 on the online dating site OkCupid OkCupid is one of the largest social networking and dating Web sites. One primary feature of OkCupid is the creation and answering of member-created quizzes containing questions on all manner of topics. Users are free to answer any number of such quizzes or questions posed by other users. This, paired with the user demographics, provide an unparalleled wealth of data on user preferences. Some questions elicit answers for a few hundreds of thousands of users, allowing for a fine-grained analysis of preferences based on age, sexual preference, gender etc. OkCupid has been showcasing some remarkable results from the analysis of its data on its excellent blog, OkTrends. OkCupid also offered access to anonymized data consisting of 369 million answers to 3,989 questions by 6.4 million users. This data consists of the randomized IDs of OkCupid users and the coded answers to questions. Only the gender, stated sexual orientation, year of birth, and stated location were provided. The response dataset was generated in July 2009. Information for OkCupid question #1597 Would you consider sleeping with someone on a first date?