Brain Trumps Cock
Sex, Emotions, and the Human Will?
Do you have your penis under control?
Is it true that sex is more about the brain than about the cock? That’s what a new study into male arousal is suggesting. Specifically, the study has shown that some men are better than others at regulating their sexual arousal than others. Turns out the men who are better at controlling their physical arousal are also better at controlling their other emotions as well.
Controlling Arousal
So basically, men who have a hard time controlling their other emotions also have a harder time controlling whether or not they get horny. According to the research head Jason Winters at the University of British Columbia, “We suspect that if an individual is good at regulating one type of emotional response, he/she is probably good at regulating other emotional responses. This has never been shown before.” Therefore, if you have a hard time keeping your cool when your boss is being hard on you, or if you have a hard time not crying at the movies, or if you can’t hold in your laughter when your in-law’s dog farts at the dinner table, then be careful; you might also be prone to awkward uncontrollable boners—or worse, an uncontrollable lack of boners!
Boner Measuring Machine: Studying Male Arousal
The study included 16 men who were instructed to watch a series of videos. Some were sexy, others were funny and decidedly unsexy (the featured comedian Mitch Hedberg, who is extremely funny but definitely not sexy). The men were told to watch some naturally and at other times attempt regulate their responses. After each clip, the participants rated their level of arousal and their penises were hooked up to a machine that measures how big of a boner they all had. Hopefully no latent robot fetishes added an unwanted skew to the data.
Too many babes on the beach?
Mind over (Penile) Matter
Most men were able to fool both the machine and themselves to a certain degree, and control their erotic response somewhat. When told to do so, men were on average able to reduce their erection response by 25%. Interestingly, men who were able to keep in their laughs when watching Mitch Hedberg were also better able to will their erections away. On the other hand, some men, when asked to rein in their boners ended up being more aroused than when they were asked to take it easy. Winters explains this demand anxiety phenomenon: “It’s sort of like when you tell someone not to think of a white elephant; those [who] are most anxious during the task have the most trouble not thinking about the white elephant.” Good readers, which category do you think you would fall under? The easily excitable type? The disciplined cyborg? Or the basket case who can’t stop fantasizing about white elephants?
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