What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire
March 28, 2011
Behavioral scientists Ogas and Gaddam used the Internetâsifting through a billion Web searches, analyzing hundreds of thousands of online erotic stories, the 40,000 most trafficked adult Web sites, five million sexual solicitations posted on online classifieds, and a great deal more online sexual expressionsâto determine the secret desires of a billion anonymous men and women. Their less surprising findings are that male desire is instantly activated by visual cues and directed toward orgasm. Women are more aroused by psychological cues, and the vast majority of romance readers like a "strong, confident, swaggering alpha" hero. More unusual findings are that straight men and masculine professions are the dominant motif in gay male porn, and gay men like the same things in their porn as straight guys: youth, graphic details of the body, and anonymous, emotionless, nonmonogamous sex. Viewers of porn sites directed at women prefer foreplay and intercourse, and many men are aroused by the thought of their wives cheating on them. Although striving to titillate and be cute (using Elmer Fudd and Miss Marple as male and female metaphors, for example), this study can be maddeningly vague ("many men," "very popular") as it offers some insights amid mostly familiar observations.