Neuroscientists love to use rats to model human behavior… okay, we take modeling out to “deduce” but that was more scientific. Short. It would seem that our men are obeying the Coolidge effect observed in rats over fifty years ago. This effect would be found in all species of mammals, so in us too. Here is what he describes. In the initial experiment, a rat was placed in the presence of a female in a cage. The rat copulated with the female several times, then being sexually exhausted showed no further interest in her (if that reminds anyone of anything…). The biologists then introduced a new female into the cage and the rat copulated immediately with her. As if by magic he was no longer sexually exhausted and was able to ejaculate again. The experiment was repeated and it showed that when the female is replaced each time by a newcomer, the rats copulate again and sometimes until exhaustion. Yes rats are hot bunny!!
In the 1980s, researchers highlighted, by asking humans to answer questionnaires, that a woman's first desire was to have more intercourse (probably to unconsciously increase the chances of being fertilized, that we get along well this is unconscious and therefore even women who do not want or want more children are pushed to behave this way) whereas the first desire of the man was to have more sexual partners. For researchers, this is explained. When a male mates with a female he is aroused by the release of dopamine in certain parts of his brain. Pleasure begins and ends with orgasm. But when the coitus experience is repeated a number of times, the dopamine spike becomes less intense and generally less dopamine is released (so he takes less pleasure). And I give you a thousand, when you introduce a new female, the release of dopamine resumes at a higher level. These brain chemistry discoveries now explain the Coolidge effect and why male mammals are driven to seek more mates.
It would therefore seem that male mammals are programmed to maximize the number of sexual partners. It's brain biochemistry, nothing else. These impulses of course come into conflict with the complex system of relationships that the man and the woman will bind. Unlike the rat, both man and woman have romantic feelings that bind them to each other. Man is much more complex than the rat, we agree. But in a society based on monogamy, the man, victim of his hormones, will always have this drive deep inside him that will push him to seek other partners. And it is always good to know this and to understand the phenomenon. And there is no silver bullet.
