Rat Study Offers Insight on Why Men Love Lingerie

 

Pet_Rats

One of the most famous psychological studies ever conducted, “Pavlov’s dogs” was an experiment in which scientist Ian Pavlov took a group of dog’s and studied their salivating activity. Using a special measurement tool, Pavlov was able to record the amount of saliva dogs produced when presented with food. Later on in the experiment, however, Pavlov noticed that the dogs were salivating when they weren’t supposed to, such as when they saw the lab assistants walk in with the food bowls, or when they heard the clattering of plates in the kitchen. Pavlov then took the experiment further, and discovered that he could get the dogs to salivate without the presence of food. He did this by conducting a number of trials in which he would first ring a bell, then quickly after present the dogs with their food. Soon enough, through the concept of “classical conditioning”, the dogs began to salivate just at the sound of the bell, even though no food followed.

The dogs were found to associate the ringing of the bell with the presentation of food, so every time the bell rang they expected an assistant to walk in with the bowls. In a recent study conducted with rats, the same concept of Pavlov’s experiment can be applied, leading researchers to understand why men love lingerie so much. In the study, researchers allowed virgin male rats to mate with female rats wearing special “jackets”. Later, the researchers presented the male rats with the opportunity to mate again, and most chose to mate with the females wearing the special jackets rather than the females not wearing anything. It was also found that the male rats ejaculated at a quicker rate when mating with the females wearing the jackets. During the mating process, the male rat mounts the female from behind and grabs hold of both sides of her. When the female rats were wearing the jackets, the male rats could feel the special cloth with their whiskers as they mated.

Just as the dogs in Pavlov’s experiment salivated at the sound of the bell due to its association with the presentation of food, the male rats showed an increase in sexual arousal with the jacketed females, because the jackets became associated with mating. This gives us more insight whereas to why men love lingerie on women, as the study indicates that a similar mental reaction occurs when men see their woman wearing lingerie. In other words, when a man sees his wife or girlfriend in lingerie, he knows he’s about to get lucky.

Sources:

“Why Men Love Lingerie: Rat Study Offers Hints” by Tanya Lewis http://www.livescience.com/48980-rats-sexual-attraction-lingerie.html

 

6 thoughts on “Rat Study Offers Insight on Why Men Love Lingerie

  1. Kaylani Chang

    This is such an interesting experiment. It does make sense that men are fond of lingerie because I feel like our whole lives we have been trained that if a woman wears lingerie then sexual pleasure immediately follows. But, then again like Katelyn said these are rats, so are human expected to act the same way?

  2. Rachel M Arndt

    I am interested by the previous comments that discuss how this study can be related to humans in a study. I think these are great hints, but more research can be done to prove this theory.

  3. Alex Victor Hatala

    This is a classic example of an unconditional psychologic response, just like you said with Pavlov’s dogs experiment. But, I have to ask the same thing that Katelyn asked, does this apply the same for humans? To me, it seems that the rats only mated with the females in jackets because they knew that they were the ones willing to have sex. Compared to male humans and their thoughts on lingerie, I think it is different. The jackets the rats were wearing were not anything specific, and did not “turn on” the rats. Lingerie on the other hand, is designed to sexually arouse someone because it often highlights the others genitalia, which is necessary for mating.

  4. ram5928

    I learned about this study in high school and found it very interesting. The dogs associate eating with a sound so whenever they hear it, they produce saliva. I think it is funny how you related this to men when they see lingerie, I would have never of made that connection. When I saw your blog titles and then read your blog, I was confused at first. Very interesting and creative blog!

  5. Katelyn May Schreckengast

    This is such an interesting blog post. I believe the study finds something for rats, but are the implications the same for humans? It would be interesting to see this study replicated.

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