Women can get turned on by touching men's underwear, according to a new study from researchers in Belgium.
Researchers found that when women are presented with sexual stimulation that is emotionally related- such as a touch- the brain's reward system is triggered. The reward system makes women think of the pleasure that comes with sex, the magazine Scientific American reported.
Anouk Festjens and a group of her colleagues wanted to see if a woman's sexuality is tied to the reward system the way it is for men. Men think about the rewards of sex more than women do. This is because women tend to focus more on the future, social implications of sex instead of the immediate rewards (such as being labeled promiscuous), according to Scientific American.
A group of women were randomly selected to look at and hold items of men's clothing, such as a pair of boxers or a t-shirt. A group of men was also selected to look at and hold a woman's bra for comparison.
In order to measure what state of reward-mode the subjects were in, researchers asked the women and men to rate how much they would pay for certain items, such as wine or chocolate, Scientific American reported.
Researchers found that after touching the boxers, the women were more willing to pay for the items. This indicated a higher desire for sex, and thus a stronger connection to the rewards of sex. The results were the same for the men who looked at and touched the bra. The women, however, did not show a higher interest in sex just by looking at the boxers or touching the t-shirt.
The differences in the effects of visual stimulation for men and women could account for men watching pornography more than women do, Scientific American reported.
