eli5 Why do we get stimulated by watching porn? Do other animals get stimulated by watching others?
In: Biology
I imagine a large part of it is evolutionary. A lot of weird stuff happens to our bodies and brains designed to make us want to procreate and, in turn, reproduce.
I am making an educated guess here, but I’m assuming that seeing others mating stimulates us in order to encourage the preservation of the species. I’d hazard a guess that this is more intense for the male of the species, possibly tapping into competitive drive/pack mentality.
In nature it’s pretty common for the male to compete for the most attractive female (attractive from a procreation point of view) to establish dominance, the weaker males lose out or die doing other dumb shit, so the strongest genes remain in the pool moving forward. It makes sense that seeing an attractive female getting boned by a competitor stimulates the male to take action and also want to mate (evolution pushing animals to procreate to preserve the species in general), or compete for the best mate (to compete for status and ensure your genes survive over another male).
Yes, other animals do experience rewards in their brain
This was evidenced by a Duke study where monkeys would pay for porn.
https://scienceblog.com/6799/monkeys-will-pay-to-look-at-porn/
This has also been done with pandas to try to get them to mate.
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