Drew hadn’t planned to get drunk, but it happened to be $2 Corona and tequila night. He also hadn’t planned on playing the field, so he kept on his pair of sweats and grabbed a couple of newspapers to read. But the IU senior’s plans changed when a girl at the bar came over to him.
“So, is there anything good in the news today?” she asked. She was pretty and petite, 5’2” or 5’3”, a brunette. And a former cheerleader.
Drew knew he was in. Soon, the conversation turned to things they’d always wanted to do before graduation. The girl mentioned she’d always wanted to have sex on the 50-yard line of the football field. As fate would have it, so had Drew.
Later that night, she asked what they should do next.
“I’m pretty sure the 50-yard line is open,” Drew said. The two went to the stadium, trying three locked gates before wriggling through an opening on the fourth. Drew claims the two got it on right on the 50.
Touchdown.
Drew’s one-night stand on the football field wasn’t a night of love, but of lust, plain and simple. It didn’t take him dinner and a movie to know that he wanted dessert. Actually, people only need 90 seconds to four minutes of interaction to decide if they’re sexually attracted to someone.
“(Lust) is the experience of sexual desire,” said Erick Janssen, associate scientist and director of education and research training at the Kinsey Institute. “It can be with a specific person or just the desire to be sexual with someone.”
You may have heard of pheromones, odorless chemical substances that are rumored to subconsciously draw you to other people, often sexually. But there’s debate to how prevalent pheromone communication is in humans. That’s not to say there’s a lack of lust.
Plenty of other elements – looks, popularity, imagination – come into play when you’re deciding who to go home with after a night on Kirkwood.
THE LOOK OF LUST
There are two primary factors in lust, the first being appearance, according to Bryant Paul, an assistant professor in the telecommunications department whose research focuses on sex in the media and pornography. But while the sense of wanting is the same, men and women have different turn-ons.
Males are most aroused by visual stimuli, such as an hourglass shape, fuller breasts, and the ability of a woman to reproduce. For instance, men are often drawn to blonde hair, which signifies youth and the possibility of procreation, Paul said. Guys also like thin waists with curvaceous hips.
Women, on the other hand, look for stability and how established a man is, regardless of age, Paul said. Women desire the “triangle look” in the chest area, being drawn to men with broad shoulders and a cut mid-section.
Ladies also lust for men with a strong jawline. On the whole, females focus in on facial features, while men are more drawn to the body, Paul said. But symmetry is key in both sexes because it indicates health.
A recent study on speed dating that tested which immediate traits men and women found most appealing in their dates discovered that physical traits won out over personality, according to IU informatics, cognitive science, and psychology professor Peter Todd.
POPULARITY CONTEST
The other factor of lust is popularity, according to Paul. People always want what they can’t have; if a person is in a relationship, it increases his or her appeal of being forbidden fruit to others. The same goes for unobtainable Hollywood stars and rich moguls. “Scarce resources are more lust-worthy,” Paul said.
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Imagination is a particularly influential aphrodisiac, as well. A high level of attraction engages the imagination because it involves people we don’t know that well, Janssen said.
“We want to be close to them; we want to be near them,” he said. This includes “fantasy life,” which can add some variety without threatening a relationship, according to Kinsey Confidential, a current exhibit on display at the Kinsey Institute.
But indulging in sexual imagination does not equate to wanting to settle down. “You wouldn’t want to marry Jenna Jameson,” Paul said.
GETTING A REPUTATION
Lust has conventionally carried an undeserving negative connotation, said Jennifer Bass, director of communications at the Kinsey Institute. Lust is a passionate desire for something, notoriously and prevalently linked to sex. Desire is something we all feel, Bass said. “It’s part of what it means to be human.”
