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  • Part 2: The Coolidge Effect

  • Here's another reason

  • internet porn is so stimulating

  • and so addictive.

  • It takes advantage of an old program

  • located in your primitive brain.

  • This subconscious program

  • is what got you started down the path

  • of using porn.

  • Consider this experiment.

  • It's been done many times.

  • I guess scientists have nothing better to do.

  • What happens when you drop a male rat into a cage

  • with a receptive female?

  • Well,

  • first you see a frenzy of copulation.

  • Progressively, the male tires of female #1.

  • She wants more but he's had enough.

  • He just can't get excited anymore.

  • So, what do you do?

  • Well, replace the original female with a fresh one.

  • And the male revives

  • and gallantly struggles to fertilize her.

  • He keeps on going

  • then the same things happen.

  • The male loses interest in female #2.

  • Starting to see a pattern here?

  • This process can be repeated again and again

  • but with novel partners.

  • Now,

  • I'm not sure how many times

  • this can be repeated.

  • But this can be repeated

  • until the male nearly dies of exhaustion.

  • See, this is a genetic program.

  • This has nothing to do with your genitals.

  • It's all happening in the brain.

  • And the purpose of it

  • is to make more babies

  • but even more importantly,

  • is to increase the genetic variety

  • of the male's off spring.

  • Here's an interesting graph,

  • which happens to be about rams.

  • As we can see,

  • we have female presentation at the bottom,

  • we have time to ejaculation in minutes

  • on the left side

  • and we have a male.

  • In one experiment,

  • the male had the same female

  • over and over again

  • and in another experiment

  • he had different females.

  • How long did it take him to ejaculate?

  • Well,

  • if you look at the same female,

  • he got longer and longer

  • until finally I guess

  • when they stopped the experiment.

  • It took 18 minutes.

  • Now, a ram only lives 12 years

  • so 18 minutes is like 2 hours in our time.

  • So it's quite a bit of time.

  • And of course

  • with different females,

  • he ejaculated quite quickly

  • which of course

  • means he was very very excited.

  • If you think about heavy porn users,

  • they often need more novelty

  • just like these animals, to get excited.

  • Here's what's going on with the animals.

  • It's called the Coolidge effect.

  • It starts out with declining interest

  • in the present sexual partner

  • then renewed vigor in a novel sexual partner.

  • This is present in all mammals,

  • and it 's also present in females and

  • of course, we said

  • it's here for the genetic variety

  • of the off spring.

  • This is what started you down the road

  • to getting hooked on porn.

  • You see, with porn,

  • you're like a lab rat.

  • Your primitive brain urges you

  • to fertilize the two-dimensional females

  • or whatever is on your screen.

  • So, you're happily married and partnered up,

  • you'd say,

  • No, I'm never going to cheat!”

  • Well, either way,

  • the Coolidge effect

  • is still at work in your brain.

  • The more rational parts of your brain are saying,

  • No, I'm not going to cheat!”,

  • but the primitive parts of your brain are saying,

  • Wow, look at that!”

  • or maybe fantasizing

  • what would it be like to have sex or

  • maybe you're using porn.

  • This is a subtle reminder of

  • the deep programming of your brain,

  • the Coolidge effect,

  • that's there to spread your gene far and wide.

  • Speaking of looking,

  • maybe we're not so unique.

  • Here's an interesting research.

  • The headline is

  • Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms”.

  • What are they paying with?

  • Well,

  • monkeys love sweets like fruit juice.

  • So, in a study,

  • the male monkeys would give up their fruit juice

  • in order to look at female bottoms.

  • You know, this is a little bit like porn,

  • or maybe a lot like porn,

  • monkey porn.

  • Here's the limbic system,

  • the primitive brain

  • where the old program is installed

  • is often called the limbic system

  • or mammal brain.

  • It's the part of the brain we have in common

  • with all mammals,

  • including that monkey we just saw.

  • It's true we have only a single brain,

  • but certain parts have specific jobs.

  • This part is ancient,

  • hundred million years old or older

  • and its job is all about survival.

  • Now, I could spend an hour

  • talking about all of its functions,

  • but what's important to us

  • is that it governs emotions,

  • such as fear, joy,

  • anger, etc.

  • And importantly,

  • it is also the seat of

  • most of our desires and our drives,

  • including hunger,

  • mate selection and our sexual urges.

  • You see,

  • sexual desire or libido

  • is not in your genitals.

  • It's here,

  • this is where you experience the Coolidge effect

  • and where all addictions happen,

  • including porn addiction.

Part 2: The Coolidge Effect

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