In The Heat of the Moment (pdf), scientists Dan Ariely and George Lowenstein asked collage boys to say what they would do to get laid. Would they buy a girl a nice dinner? Would they consider sleeping with a woman over 40 (!!) And what would they do to stay safe? Would they use a condom even if the girl might change her mind while they went to get one? (Please! Don’t they know what watch pockets are for?) Using a one-handed keypad the boys answered the on-screen questions twice. One time flaccid, another time “in a state of arousal”. Yes, the boys were paid US$ 10 to wank while they answered questions — the “arousal” round of questions was accompanied by on-screen porn.

No prizes for guessing the results. Men were more likely to want sex (even with a 40 year-old) when they were “aroused”. They were more likely to go further to get it when they were aroused (some would even lie to a woman that he loved her. Imagine!) And they were much more likely not to bother with a condom.

It’s a lovely, tongue in cheek piece of research. The authors conclude:

“In sum, the current study shows that sexual arousal influences people in profound ways. This should come as no surprise to most people who have personal experience with sexual arousal…At a practical level, our results suggest that efforts to promote safe, ethical sex should concentrate on preparing people to deal with the ‘‘heat of the moment’’ or to avoid it when it is likely to lead to self-destructive behavior. Efforts at self-control that involve raw willpower are likely to be ineffective…”

You can buy that most people have sex because they want to, or you can just say no.

Thanks to KH. And to the 77% of aroused men (and 58% of flacids) who said they would have sex with a 40 year-old.

As I understand it, procurement is illegal in the UK, at least when it comes to procuring partners for pleasure. But if you turn the new logo on its side, you’ll find that OGC suggest that you can drive things up single handed.

If you want to pass this on to friends but don’t want to touch directly on the indelicate subject of masturbation, there are lots of other words you could use. Check out World Wide Wank for an automatic euphemism generator. I pressed the “Do Me” button three times and came up with:

Shakin’ hands with your carrot,
Strummin’ the wild hog,
Leakin’ the main drain

UK IT site The Register which, ahem, leaked the story, doesn’t say how much OGC spent on the redesign. The story came to me via Accordian Guy, courtesy of Jamie Uhrig. Thanks.

These great works have inspired this burst of pseudery from the Centre of Recent Drawing‘s David Gleeson:

“Signed and dated, the images collectively become an acknowledgment of human futility in the face of time as well as a violent record of male sexual drive. Caught and frozen as black-on-white eruptions, these simple auto-drawings plot desire, libidinal drive and sexual economies whilst powerfully evoking mortality and the will to overcome its inevitability. Each one has both an aggressive, chaotic imprint and a fragile delicacy that complement the medium, adding to the body of work by various artists that explores and articulates the notion of the artist as (pro)creator.”

Less pseudy and a great deal more interesting is The Barbican Centre’s Seduced: Art and Sex from antiquity to now. If you haven’t seen it and you’re in London (oh, and you’re over 18), get your skates on: the exhibition ends next week. In Paris (if you’re over the sightly more tender age of 16), check out the Bibliotheque Nationale’s L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque: Eros au secret. It’s an exhibition of all the things that have been locked out of public view for fear of disrupting national morals. That wouldn’t include the sex life of President Nicolas Sarkozy, then.