Researchers have recently determined, in a new scientific study, that watching a woman with an hourglass body type tends to have the reward response in the brain of a male as drinking alcohol or using drugs. The same pleasure centers in the brain light up, as they would if the males were engaged in this type of risky behavior. According to the experts behind this investigation, this discovery could help to partially explain the fascination that some men have towards visiting for example adult websites. The body of work could also provide additional explanations for why even young boys tend to easily fall prey to this habit, LiveScience reports.

Even from ancient times, women with larger, curvier hips have been associated with fertility, and so, strictly evolutionarily speaking, it makes more sense for men to be more attracted to these females. While modern society has sought to fit all women within a mindless and unhealthy standard of beauty, these evolutionary “callings” still remain, as our genetic baggage remembers what fuller shapes actually mean. Several cross-cultural studies have already determined that men from all countries and from all races tend to find hourglass-shaped women more appealing.

In a new set of experiments, scientists had about 14 young males look at pictures of the backside of women, before and after cosmetic surgery that redistributed body fat around. In all instances, the surgeries were meant to give the women more curvy hips. According to the scientists, the overall amount of weight in each of the females was not reduced or enhanced, only moved around. While they were watching these pictures, the men were subjected to brain scans. The imaging process revealed that post-surgery women were the most attractive to them. Regions of the brain that also activate in response to drugs and alcohol were found to light up when the participants saw post-op women.

“It turns out women find similar optimally attractive female bodies as attention-grabbing, albeit for different reasons. Women size up other women in an effort to determine their own relative attractiveness and to maintain mate guarding – or, in other words, keep their mate away from optimally designed females,” explains Georgia Gwinnett College evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist Steven Platek. Details of the new investigation appear in the February 5 online issue of the open-access scientific journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science.