Sex, Mating & The Male Brain

Page 1 of 2

The biology behind the man trance

For the typical hot-blooded male, looking at attractive female shapes and body parts is as natural as breathing. And it’s perhaps just as necessary when it comes to keeping the human race going. Remember, the men who are alive today have been biologically selected over hundreds of thousands of years to be good at focusing on fertile females.When a man’s visual cortex spots a woman’s hourglass figure or plunging neckline, his eyes zoom in on her breasts , legs or derriere for a better look. As I explain in the “Love and Lust” chapter of, men have evolved to focus on certain features that indicate reproductive health. Researchers have found that the attraction to an hourglass figure — large breasts, small waist, flat stomach, and full hips — is ingrained in men across all cultures. This shape tells the male brain that a prospective mate is young, healthy and probably not pregnant by another male.

When research studies revealed that a man’s No. 1 mate detector is visual, men all over the world were probably saying: “They had to do research to know that?” But what most men, or women, don’t know is just how fast that detection system works. Researchers at the University of California found that it takes the male brain only 1/5th of a second to classify a woman as sexually hot or not. This verdict is made long before a man’s conscious thought processes can even engage. If he likes what he sees, his pupils dilate, his testosterone surges, his heart rate accelerates, and he gets that glazed look in his eyes that means the rest of the world has temporarily disappeared. This is the male brain in “man trance.”



Designed for sexual pursuit

The male brain is structured to push sexual pursuit to the top of his priority list. With the area for sexual pursuit in the male brain being 2.5 times larger than in the female and the testosterone fuel that runs these male brain circuits being 10 to 15 times higher, it’s clear that males have evolved to be always at-the-ready when a sexual opportunity arises. In Mother Nature’s terms, a man’s primary job is to successfully procreate.

Research shows that men report wanting an average of 14 sexual partners in their lifetime, while most women in the study said they wanted an average of 1 or 2. Researchers surmise that some of the disparity in these numbers can be chalked up to men’s interest in one-night stands. Since Mother Nature designed men to be mating Maseratis, they come equipped with the capacity to learn and use the mating styles that work best for them.

Why do men cheat? Sex, mating and the male brain provides some possible answers…