Study Shows that Being in the Mood Helps Us Tune Out Unappealing Details

For most of us, sex is definitely an enjoyable experience. But while the things we do, taste, and feel during the act are more than satisfying, there are those little unpleasant details that we tend to consciously or unconsciously ignore. After all, sex involves people in very close quarters, and sans the romance, it can get pretty unpleasant.

Researchers from the Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands wanted to find out why women overlook the unappealing parts of sex, so they conducted a study, which has been featured on Forbes.com, and which involved 90 women who were divided into three groups: the sexual arousal group, the non-sexual arousal group, and the neutral or control group.

The sexual arousal group was given sexual paraphernalia in order to get them in the right mood. The non-sexual arousal group was shown unappealing things so as to dampen any notion of sex. The neutral group wasn’t given any materials. In order to measure the impact of sexual arousal on feelings of disgust, all three groups were then given a list of 16 tasks which ranged from those that connoted sex (such as “eat a banana”), to those that were completely gross (such as “smell this unwashed pair of socks”).  

The results revealed that the sexual arousal group rated all tasks--erotic and otherwise--less disgusting than the non-sexual arousal group and control group, effectively proving that being in the mood somehow makes us more forgiving of things that normally repulse us when we’re not.

So what’s the moral of the story?  If you want to bring your bedroom escapades to a higher level, you and your beau will need to exert extra effort to really get yourselves in the mood; and we’re not just talking about being slightly interested in the notion of getting it on. You need to be in the zone 100% physically, mentally, and emotionally. This way, you won’t be afraid to try new ways of experiencing and pleasing each other.
  
(Photo by Gabriel S. Delgado C. via Flickr Creative Commons)