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

by Ogi Ogas

  Schiffer et al. (2008). “The results for the sexual > neutral block contrast in the boys condition, together with the appendant regression analyses with sexual arousal ratings in homosexual pedophiles, confirmed an activation pattern previously reported in heterosexual males.”

  138 Gay men watch more porn Traeen et al. (2006).

  140 impossible for evolution to have designed a gay-brain-only template Symons (1979).

  140 the male brain’s body map Aleong & Paus (2010). Arzy et al. (2006), Poliakoff. (2010), Chan et al. (2004), David et al. (2007), Peelen & Downing (2007), Urgesi et al. (2004).

  142 blind men are aroused by female anatomy Karremans et al. (2010).

  142 dubbed it the “Sleeping Beauty” fetish. Bianchi-Demicheli et al. (2010). Intriguingly, there is an online genre of pornography that features sleeping women, including sites like SleepingLand.com, 3XSleep.com, and SleepingPortal.com. Though most of the interest in this genre is probably due to natural urges rather than brain damage, perhaps some of these Sleeping Beauty fetishists have the same brain lesion as Ortigue’s fascinating patient.

  143 the psychologist Paul Vasey has been studying Japanese macaques Vasey & Pfaus (2005).

  144 “a by-product of other behavioral mechanisms” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?pagewanted=all, retrieved on August 30, 2010.

  144 intromission Becker (2008), Pfaus (1996).

  144 pacing Becker (2008). Pfaus (1996). “At first, rat copulation was studied by putting a female rat in a small cage. It was after placing the female rat in a larger cage was it discovered that she liked to control the pace of copulation.”

  144 lordosis Patchev et al. (2004). Researchers produced mice lacking one of the genes responsible for the animals’ sensitivity to estrogen. These mice never exhibited lordosis. “Female sexual receptivity was severely disrupted, as disclosed by abolition of lordosis behavior.”

  144 make a dominant male behave like a submissive female Becker (2009).

  145 you can elicit mounting and hip-thrusting behavior Becker (2009).

  145 widespread belief in the gay community Cf. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100306222159AAicFCT.

  145 We analyzed 1.9 million men-seeking-men ads on Craigslist Posters are disarmingly direct and top or bottom self-identification is commonly made in the short post titles itself (for example: “Suck your cock and more,” “Submissive cocksucker in hotel,” “Use my mouth,” “Looking for masculine guy who like to be serviced,” “Smooth white bottom for hung top”). We took advantage of this feature to categorize posters as tops and bottoms by conservatively matching titles with string patterns. A small random sampling of posts that did not match any of the string patterns showed the distribution to be same as obtained from pattern-matched titles.

  Interestingly, we also found that posters lie about their age. The most commonly reported ages are 28, 35, 30, 25, 38, and 29, suggesting a tendency toward rounding off toward milestone numbers when above, and subtracting when close. About 30,000 ads among the 1.9 million were posted by married men. This was also determined by pattern-matching the titles.

  146 in the three most common five-word phrases in the gay stories on Literotica http://www.literotica.com/stories/stories_by_category.php?category=6&page=44.

  The three hundred most common five-word phrases from gay male stories on literotica were compared to the most common five-word phrases from stories in the erotic coupling genre. The resulting list was sorted according to relative frequency.

  MOST COMMON PHRASES SORTED ACCORDING TO RELATIVE FREQUENCY a cock in my mouth

  his cock back into my

  out of my ass and

  out of his mouth and

  on his knees in front

  the back of his throat

  and i felt his cock

  on his back on the

  cock in his hand and

  and i could see his

  147 “Must enjoy and appreciate the cocksucking I will give” This listing was retrieved in April 2010. Craigslist does not archive old listings. See http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/faq#lifespan.

  147 Looking for bottom to suck my dick Retrieved from Craigslist in April 2010.

  147 about 2 percent of them specifically requested men willing to dominate another man sexually At least 1.6% or 31,667 listings out of total 1.95 million m4m craigslist posts seek out sexual domination. This was determined by solicitations in post titles that used the keywords rough, rape, slut, whore. These keywords were chosen after verifying that such usage was highly correlated with requests for sexual domination.

  148 “I’ve met up with a guy in the backseat of his Lexus” See also: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-03-19/entertainment/18838701_1_grindr-gay-men-marriage.

  149 casual, anonymous sex that has long been the fantasy Two classic jokes illustrate the difference between male sexuality and female sexuality: What does a lesbian bring on a second date? A moving van. What does a gay man bring on a second date? What’s a second date?

  150 excessive androgens LeVay (2010), Wilson & Rahman (2005).

  CHAPTER 8

  152 So he founded Playgirl See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100965/

  153 the 1973 preview issue featured the Hager twins See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100965/.

  154 editor in chief Claire Harth admitted the truth http://books.google.com/books?id=WWIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&dq=playgirl+editor&hl=en&ei=X4tuTL6dF8O78gaO9KH1Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=playgirl%20editor&f=false.

  154 I could count on one hand the number of successful porn for women paysites Personal e-mail communication with Titmowse, August 2009.

  154 “Porn is incredibly DULL DULL DULL” http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/11/27/porn/view/index11.html?show=all.

  154 “Pornography is the theory, rape the practice” Morgan (1980).

  155 “not only bad for the people who make it but damaging to society as a whole” http://journalstar.com/news/local/education/article_fae8d340-107b-11df-a90b-001cc4c03286.html.

  155 “customer complaints from women” http://gizmodo.com/5477864/why-apple-banned-sex-apps-we-were-getting-complaints-from-women.

  155 Chief technology officer for PornHub Personal face-to-face communication with Perry Stathopoulos, February 2010.

  155 about a third of its visitors are women Also see Albright (2008). Based on a survey of 15,246 respondents in the United States 75 percent of men and 41 percent of women had intentionally viewed or downloaded porn. Men and gays/lesbians were more likely to access porn or engage in other sex-seeking behaviors online compared with straight men or women. Also see Cooper et al. (2003).

  155 Ms. Juicy User #3194921.

  156 Women can only conceive during five days Wilcox et al. (1995).

  156 extended sexuality Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  157 “men have the secret ingredient” Mitch Fatel, Miniskirts and Muffins.

  157 two distinct “modes” of sexual interests during their ovulatory cycle Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  157 different set of erotic cues Kruger & Fisher (2005). Female college students read brief sketches of characters from nineteenth-century novels exemplifying alternative male mating strategies. The proper hero “dad” advertises high potential for paternal investment by being compassionate, romantic, and industrious, whereas the dark hero “cad” advertises high genetic quality by being competitive, dominant, and brave. Women preferred the “dad” for long-term relationships, but were more likely to choose the “cad” for brief sexual relationships. These preferences were expected, as they benefit the women’s reproductive success. Participants also inferred critical attributes and behaviors from the character descriptions that omitted this information. Also see Kruger et al. (2003).

  157 she gives special preference to males with superior genes Haselton & Miller (2006), Gizewski et al. (2006). Also http://www.eurekalert.org
/pub_releases/2010-08/uocp-mwp082410.php: “Not unlike the chimps featured on the Discovery Channel, women become more competitive with other females during the handful of days each month when they are ovulating. The desire for women at peak fertility to unconsciously choose products that enhance appearance is driven by a desire to outdo attractive rival women.”

  157 good looks and social dominance Haselton & Miller (2006). “Comparing women in mid-luteal phase and during their menses, superior activation was revealed for women in mid-luteal phase in the anterior cingulate, left insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. The superior cerebral activation in the mid-luteal phase is also correlated with the differing subjective rating of women in the two cycle times. The women within the mid-luteal phase rated their sexual arousal similar to men and women within the menstrual phase rated significantly lower than men or women in mid-luteal phase. The reported results indicate that the differences in cerebral activation are more prominent in comparison between men and women than between women in different cycle phases.”

  158 and strongly favor socially dominant males Matsumoto-Oda (1999).

  158 prefer males whose faces have been experimentally manipulated Waitt et al. (2003).

  158 a stronger preference for men with masculine faces Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  158 tend to flirt more Haselton et al. (2007), Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  158 likely to avoid risky places Chavanne & Gallup (1998), Broder & Hohmann (2003), Petralia & Gallup (2002).

  158 a greater aversion to squicky sex Fessler & Navarrete (2003).

  158 tips that professional lap dancers received Miller et al. (2007). “To see whether estrus was really ‘lost’ during human evolution (as researchers often claim), we examined ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by professional lap dancers working in gentlemen’s clubs. Eighteen dancers recorded their menstrual periods, work shifts, and tip earnings for 60 days on a study Web site. A mixed-model analysis of 296 work shifts (representing about 5300 lap dances) showed an interaction between cycle phase and hormonal contraception use. Normally cycling participants earned about US$335 per 5-h shift during estrus, US$260 per shift during the luteal phase, and US$185 per shift during menstruation. By contrast, participants using contraceptive pills showed no estrus earnings peak. These results constitute the first direct economic evidence for the existence and importance of estrus in contemporary human females, in a real-world work setting. These results have clear implications for human evolution, sexuality, and economics.”

  158 When women are not ovulating, they prefer men with more feminized faces Jones et al. (2005).

  159 nonovulating women do not ignore indicators of good genes Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  159 “George Clooney and Sean Connery are sex symbols” http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/11/27/porn/view/index11.html.

  159 One British study asked women to keep diaries Thornhill & Gangestad (2008), Bellis & Baker (1990), Jones et al. (2005).

  159 Studies have shown that men are more protective Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  159–160 women more frequently resist men’s efforts to track their activities Gangestad et al. (2004), Garver-Apgar et al. (2007).

  160 most women lack conscious awareness of their ovulations Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  160 women show a greater interest in visual sexual material Wallen & Rupp (2010).

  160 Sssh was founded by Angie Rowntree Personal face-to-face and e-mail communication with Angie Rowntree, spring and summer 2010.

  162 A sexy voice, a masculine scent, and a sensuous touch Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  162 “I have consumed vast quantities of female-created (written) porn” http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/11/27/porn/view/index2.html?show=all.

  162 analyzed the text of more than ten thousand romance novels We extracted the entire text from 10,344 romance novels by a total of 1,878 different authors. The median length of the romance novels was 55,615 words and the mean length was 54,168 words. We extracted probable description passages based on pronoun density. Most often, passages with the highest density of masculine pronouns and located in the first quarter of the text were descriptions of male protagonists. Passages with the highest combined density of masculine and feminine pronouns tend to be sexual or erotic descriptions. We extracted such high-density passages from the novels and used Mechanical Turk for annotation as person or scene description. Anatomical nouns were then extracted from the scene descriptions by sorting according to the frequency of words relative to the baseline frequency of all romance novels (and manual validation). Adjectives used in physical descriptions by limiting the search to two-word phrases containing anatomical nouns.

  163 female brain processes a man’s visual features with the same speed Rupp & Wallen (2008).

  164 associated with poorer long-term health Ellison & Gray (2009).

  164 men produce steady levels of sperm Ellison & Gray (2009).

  164 “My husband has a suit” http://www.thegreatstory.org/storiesawaken.html. .

  164 musculature and fast-energy burning Leitenberg & Henning (1995). “That serum testosterone level, independent of pubertal development per se, was a significant predictor of sexual fantasy frequency, whereas six other hormones were not.”

  Blakemore et al. (2010). “Rather, there is emerging evidence from both human and nonhuman primate studies that testosterone increases motivation to attain higher status, but the specific effects on behavior are dependent on the social and developmental context.”

  164–165 masculine scents are correlated with testosterone levels Thornhill & Gangestad (2008).

  165 “tall men make me feel more secure” http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Love-Tall-Men/1099298

  165 “It makes me feel small and secure” http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Love-Tall-Men/506030.

  165 a preference for men in uniform See OkCupid data description.

  QUESTION #2792: ARE MILITARY UNIFORMS A TURN ON? YES, NO, I WEAR ONE TO WORK.Straight Males: # of respondents: 17315; 18.45% YES, 58.79% NO, 2.61%.

  Bisexual Females: # of respondents: 2685; 35.83% YES, 47.3% NO, 0.34%.

  Straight Females: # of respondents: 9201; 43.22% YES, 39.18% NO, 0.37%.

  165 Fashion blogger Teresa McGurk http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-do-women-find-men-in-uniform-so-attractive_.

  166 One eye-tracking study found that women spend no more time looking at the penis Rupp & Wallen (2007).

  166 “because I wanted to stand behind him” http://jezebel.com/comment/26261416/.

  166 Women generally prefer tight, athletic butts Abramson & Pinkerton (1995).

  166 Sportswriter Michael Silver http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-thegameface022208.

  “They talk about ‘Winning the Beauty Contest’—that was Brodrick Bunkley . . . When he weighed in, there were murmurs throughout the room. His legs were exploding out of his shorts, and it looked like his skin was swathed in Saran Wrap. You had a bunch of grown men who acted like they were at a strip joint outside of town. I thought they were going to offer him money for a lap dance.”

  166 “Do women like guys’ butts?” http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100330113037AA8qFo6.

  167 Ms. Intuition User #2976906.

  168 One particular group of women reported higher amounts of porn viewing See OkCupid data description.

  QUESTION #25: WOULD YOU WATCH A PORNO MOVIE WITH YOUR IDEAL MATCH? YES, NO.Straight Males: # of respondents: 94903; 83.51% YES, 6.13% NO.

  Bisexual Females: # of respondents: 12292; 88.06% YES, 4.0% NO.

  Straight Females: # of respondents: 55679; 74.71% YES, 11.18% NO.

  QUESTION #9668: NOT AS IN WHIPS AND CHAINS, BUT IN GENERAL, DO YOU PREFER YOUR PARTNER TO BE . . . DOMINANT, SUBMISSIVE, BALANCED.Straight Males: # of Respondents: 77158; 14.1% Dominant, 20.19% Submissive, 42.34% Balanced.

  Bisexual Females: # of Respondents: 9681; 50.05% Dominant, 6.0% Submissive, 27.91% Balanced.

 
; Straight Females: # of Respondents: 45389; 50.69% Dominant, 3.14% Submissive, 20.39% Balanced.

  QUESTION #1134: DO YOU HAVE A DESIRE (EVEN IF IT’S SECRET) TO TAKE PART IN SEXUAL ACTIVITIES INVOLVING BONDAGE? YES, NO ABSOLUTELY NOT.Straight Males: # of Respondents: 99053; 51.54% YES, 30.51% NO, 1.56%.

  Bisexual Females: # of Respondents: 13611; 81.63% YES, 8.53% NO, 0.54%.

  Straight Females: # of Respondents: 61933; 55.83% YES, 23.15% NO, 1.49%.

  QUESTION #27262: YOU WALK IN ON YOUR PARTNER SURFING A PORNO SITE. HOW DO YOU FEEL? ANGRY/JEALOUS/SHOCKED/CHEATED, INTERESTED, INDIFFERENT.Straight Males: # of Respondents: 68397; 8.79% Angry/jealous/

  shocked/cheated, 61.91% Interested, 10.57% Indifferent.

  Bisexual Females: # of Respondents: 7434; 8.8% Angry/jealous/

  shocked/cheated, 64.47% Interested, 11.19% Indifferent.

  Straight Females: # of Respondents: 48488; 23.41% Angry/jealous/

  shocked/cheated, 39.34% Interested, 13.28% Indifferent.

  Also see discussion on authenticity of bisexual self-identification and commentary by bisexuals on differences in online and real-life dating preferences: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-biggest-lies-in-online-dating/.

  168 Self-identified bisexuals The expected overlap of nude men and nude women searches in the AOL data set, assuming independence: 8.86, obtained: 130. We can’t differentiate between male and female searchers, however.

  169 Each column represents a single question from the survey Question #1 (OkCupid Question# 86615): Would you pay for porn? A: Yes. B: No. C. Only if I couldn’t get it for free. D. I’m not interested in porn. (Respondents: 826 straight men, 106 bisexual women, 268 straight women.)