by Jesse Bering
Another important set of editors is the one that came long before this book ever materialized, when earlier versions of many of the essays were published online. In going to bat for me in conceptualizing and implementing my Bering in Mind column at Scientific American, Karen Schrock is the one who really got me off the ground. I can’t thank her enough for giving me the outlet to exercise my lewd and lascivious thoughts—through Scientific American, no less.
More recently, my editor at Slate magazine, Daniel Engber, has also been instrumental in helping me converse with readers about so many gloriously inappropriate topics. Dan and I share a penchant for the absurd and the scientific, two things that go together so naturally and can be such a jubilant concoction when things go just right. I’m enormously grateful for working alongside Dan and learning from him, in his role as an editor but also as a fellow writer.
What would I be without my family? Much worse for the wear, certainly. My guess is that for a very long time, my family members haven’t known quite how to answer the question of what it is that I do for a living. Thank you regardless, Dad, Linda, Stacey(s), Adam, Jodi, Jakob, Gianni, Sydney, and those among the many close but scattered strands of Berings and Roths.
Perhaps the most important individuals to thank, however, are the scientists and scholars who did the actual hard work. My summaries herein are only pale accounts of their ingenuity and, often, their genius. Among those I’d like to mention specifically for their contributions and help along the way: Gordon Gallup, Becky Burch, Ray Blanchard, Ara Norenzayan, Denys deCatanzaro, Roy Baumeister, and Michael Blume. Jonathan Jong was a resource-laden assistant who kindly zoomed more than one obscure article to me via the New Zealand ether. I’d also like to thank the staff at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, for hosting me as an independent scholar.
Finally, allow me to reflect in closing, in sincere and smiling gratitude, upon some heroes of my everyday life, my best nonhuman friends, “Big Tommy,” Gulliver, and Uma.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Aché
acne; anxiety; evolution; genetics; treatment
acrotomophilia
activation hypothesis
Adams, Henry
adaptive suicide
Africa
afterlife beliefs
age orientation, erotic
aggression; female; homophobia; male; “mate-guarding” behavior; slow speed–high aggressiveness hypothesis
AIDS
alcohol
algolagnia
alliance information theory
American Journal of Psychiatry, The
American Journal of Psychotherapy
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
Amish
amnesia
anal sex; barebacking; gay male porn; sex role preferences; sexsomnia; slang terms; unprotected
Andersen, Hans Christian
Andersen, Monica
androgens
animal rights groups
animals, see specific animals; zoophilia
Annual Review of Sex Research
anterior cingulate cortex
anthropophagy
anti-adrenergics
antibiotics
antidepressants; semen as
anxiety; acne; death; erection and; homophobia; suicide and
apathy
Archives of General Psychiatry
Archives of Sexual Behavior
Aristotle
Arnedo, Vanessa
asexuality; essentialism; genetics and
Asexual Pals
asymmetry; testicular
atheism
Australia
australopithecines
autocunnilingus
autofellatio; homosexuality and
automatism
AVEN
Aztecs, cannibalism rituals of
baboons; cannibalism
Bailey, J. Michael
Baker, Robin
Barash, David
barebacking
Bartholin, Thomas
Bartlett, Nancy
Batts, Shelley, Behavioral Sciences and the Law
Baumeister, Roy; escape theory of
Beauvoir, Simone de
Beck Depression Inventory
Becker, Ernest, The Denial of Death
Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioural Brain Research
Beirne, Piers
Belfast
Belief Instinct, The (Bering)
Bellis, Mark
Belsky, Jay
Bemporad, Jules
benzodiazapines
Bering, Vitus
bestiality
Bhowmick, Samar
Bible
bisexuality
bitchiness
Bixler, Ray
Blanchard, Ray
Blass, Elliott
blood; vessels
Blume, Michael
Body Image
Bogaert, Anthony
bonobo
brain; consumption; damage; epileptic; evolution; free will and; homosexuality and; laughter and; libidinal systems; masturbation and; neuroanatomy; pedophilia and; regions; sleep-related erections; suicide and
brain damage; hypersexuality and; pedophilia and
Brain Research Reviews
Brazil
breastfeeding
breasts
British Journal of Health Psychology
Brookfield, John
Bucy, Paul
bumblebees
Burch, Rebecca
burial practices; cremation; green burial; specific-tree burial; symbolic immortality
Burke, William
Burns, Jeffrey
Burroughs, William, Naked Lunch
buttocks
Butts, Nancy
by-product hypothesis
Campbell, Anne
cancer
cannibalism; genetics and; medical; ritual; sociopathic; starvation; taboo
Caravaggio
Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Cassidy, Rebecca, Transgressive Sex: Subversion and Control in Erotic Encounters
castration
cats; penis; sex with
Catholic Church
Cautela, Joseph
Cavenar, Jesse
cemeteries
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
cervix
children; fantasies; foot fetishism; hypersexualized behaviors; precocious puberty; pre-homosexual; religion and reproduction; sex-typed behavior; sexual abuse of; sexual development of; toy interests
chimpanzees; masturbation; mirror self-recognition test; penis; semen; sex with; suicide
China; cannibalism in
chlamydia
Cho, Margaret
Christianity
Churchett, Libby
circumcision; semen displacement theory and
Clark, Anne
Clementi, Tyler
Clinical Pediatrics
clitoris
clonazepam
cocksucker (term)
Cohen, Danielle
Cohen, David
colliculi
colobus monkey masturbation
Colombia
Colombo, Matteo Realdo
coma, encephalitis-caused
conception
condoms
conjunctivae
Consoli, Angèle
contraception
coprophagia
copulation, see sex
cortisol
Cotard, Jules
Cotard’s syndrome
crabs
Craig, Larry
Crane, Hart
cremasteric muscle
cremation
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
Crick, Francis, The Astonishing Hypothesis
criminality: pedophilia and; sexual fantasy and; suicide and
cunnilingus; autocunnilingus; pubic hair and
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Current Biology
Current Psychiatry
Dahmer, Jeffrey
D’Annunzio, Gabriele
Darwin, Charles
date rape drugs
David, Gerard
David, Larry
death; anxiety; burial practices; Cotard’s syndrome; embalming chemicals; industry; suicide; symbolic immortality
deCatanzaro, Denys; on adaptive suicide; mathematical model of self-preservation and self-destruction
de Graaf, Reimer
Dekkers, Midas, Dearest Pet
Descartes, René
determinism
Developmental Psychology
disease, and cannibalism
DNA
dogs; sex with
Donatello
dopamine
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
dosage effect
drugs; date rape; vaginal delivery
Drummond, Kelley
DSM
Earls, Christopher
Ebrahim, Irshaad
Ecuador
Edelman, Benjamin
egg; fertilization; release
Egypt; ancient
ejaculation; delayed; female; flowback; genetics and; masturbation; premature; “refractory period” following; semen displacement theory; variation in male ejaculation latencies
elephants
Ellis, Bruce
Ellis, Havelock
Emotion
empathy; acne and; sex and
endorphins
England
ephebophilia
epileptics; hypersexuality and
Equus, see Shaffer, Peter, Equus
erections; homophobic men and; sleep-related
erotic age orientation
erotophobia
estrone
Ethology and Sociobiology
etymology
eugenics
European Psychiatry
evolution; acne; asexuality and; brain; cannibalism; penis; premature ejaculation; pubic hair; religion and; semen chemistry; semen displacement theory; sexual jealousy and; suicide and; testicular; zoophilia and
Evolution and Human Behavior
Evolutionary Psychology
exhibitionism
eye
fag hags; negative stereotypes; on television
fallopian tubes
fantasies; childhood; during sex; masturbation
fatigue
fellatio; autofellatio; foot; gay male porn; pubic hair and
female aggression
female ejaculation
female orgasm; genetics and; lesbian; male income and; masturbatory; sperm retention and
Fenwick, Peter
Ferrell, Will
fertilization
fetishism, see specific fetishes
Fillion, Thomas
Finn, Mary
Finn, Michael
Fisher, Helen
Flinders University
flowback
Foley, Mark
Folia Primatologica
follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
food-borne disease
foot fetishism; children; homosexual
Foot Fraternity
fornix
Fort, Joseph Auguste Aristide
France
Franklin, Karen
fraternal twins
free will; brain and; deterministic factors; genetics and; as illusion
French Sleep Research Society
frenulum
Freud, Sigmund
Fry, Stephen
Gajdusek, Carleton
Gallup, Gordon; activation hypothesis; on chemistry of semen; semen displacement theory
gay rights
gender dysphoria
gender identity disorder
Genet, Jean
genetics; acne and; asexuality and; cannibalism and; female orgasm and; free will and; homosexuality and; premature ejaculation and; religion and; suicide and
Germany; Nazi
gerontophila
Gervais, Will
Giannini, James
Gide, André
Gilbert, Paul
Gilliland, Amy
goats, sex with
Golden Girls, The
gonads
gonorrhea
Goodall, Jane
gorillas; hair; lice; penis
Gould, Stephen Jay; “Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples”
Gräfenberg, Ernst
Graham, Cynthia
Grandfield, Tracey
Great Leap Forward
Greece, ancient; suicide in
green burial
G-spot
Guy, William
Hagen, Edward
Haggard, Ted
Haines, Duane
Hall, G. Staley
Hamilton, Gilbert Van Tassel
Hamilton, William
handicapping principle
hanging brain (term)
happiness; laughter and; nonhuman primate; semen and; unreasonable standards for
Hart, Trevor
Harvard Business School
Harvard University
heartbreak; in homosexual polyamory
hebephilia; homosexuality and; as mental disorder
Hebrews
Henning, Kris
Herdt, Gilbert, Archives of Sexual Behavior
herpes encephalitis
Hess, Nicole
heteroparity
Hindus
hippocampus
Hippocampus
Hitler, Adolf
HIV
Hodgson, Suzanna
Holmes, Dave
Holocaust
homonegativism (term)
homophobia; erection and; gay porn and; in parents; religion and; as repressed desire
homosexuality; autofellatio and; barebacking; brain and; fag hags and; foot fetishism; forecasting in children; genetics and; homophobia as repressed desire; masturbation; men and teenage boys; in the military; navigational shortcomings; polyamory; pornography; sex role preferences; sexsomnia; sexual jealousy in; suicide and; teenage; teen suicides; top/bottom/versatile self-labels; zoophilia
Hong, Lawrence; “survival of the fastest” theory
Hood, Bruce, SuperSense
Hopkins, Juliet
hormones; acne and; female; FSH and LH, in semen
horses, sex with
Hutterites
hyperorality
hypersexuality; brain damage and; epileptics and
hypertrichosis
hypoactive sexual desire disorder
hypothalamus
identical twins
immunosuppressants
Implicit Association Test
inclusive genetic fitness
India
infantophilia
infidelity; same-sex
injury, testicular
insemination
intelligent design
International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Revised, The
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth
International Journal of Impotence Research, The
Internet; porn
interspecies sex
in vitro fertilization
Ireland
Italy
Jackson, Michael
Japan
jealousy, sexual
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jern, Patrick
Jews; Holocaust and
John, Elton
Johnson, Dominic
Johnson, Virginia
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of Animal Behavior
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychia
try
Journal of Biology
Journal of Health Psychology
Journal of Research in Personality
Journal of Sex Research, The
Journal of Sexual Medicine, The
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Kahn, Eugen
Kama Sutra
Kellett, Stephen
Kessler, Morris
kin selection
Kinsey, Alfred; Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
Kinsey Institute for Sex Research
Kitavan Islanders
Klüver, Heinrich
Klüver-Bucy syndrome
Koerting, Johanna
Korda, Joanna
kuru
Lalumière, Martin
lang, k.d.
Langer, Susanne
laughter; brain and; human; joyful; nonhuman primate; schadenfreude; as social signal; taunting; tickling
Leitenberg, Harold
Leonardo da Vinci
lesbianism; brain and; forecasting in children; infidelity; masturbation; menstrual synchrony and; orgasm; pornography
Lewis, Jerry Lee
lice
limbic system
Lion, Ernest
Lloyd, Elisabeth; The Case of the Female Orgasm
lobectomy
Lobo, Stany
Lohr, Bethany
Long, Eddie
Luedecke, Jan
Lukianowicz, Narcyz
luteinizing hormone (LH)
Maddow, Rachel
male continence
Malhotra, Deepak; Judgment and Decision Making
mangabeys
Mann, Thomas, Death in Venice
Martins, Yolanda
Masters, William
Masters and Johnson
masturbation; fantasies; female orgasm; homosexuality and; nonhuman primate; public; sexsomnia; teenage
McClanahan, Rue
McClintock, Martha
McClintock effect
McIntyre, Matthew
Medical Hypotheses
Medicine, Science, and the Law
Meier, Brian
Meiwes, Armin
melatonin
MELT
memory
men: acne; aggression; autofellatio; foot fetishists; homophobia; homosexual; masturbation fantasies; “mate-guarding” responses in; orgasm; penis shape; polyamory; premature ejaculation; pubic hair removal; semen chemistry; sexsomnia; sex with teenage boys; sleep-related erections; testicles; wealth of, and female orgasm
“men who have sex with men” (MSM)
menstruation; pheromones and; synchrony
Meston, Cindy
Mexico
Meyer, Martin
Michelangelo
Miletski, Hani
military; autofellatio and; “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gays; homosexuality in; sexsomnia; suicide
Millay, Edna St. Vincent
Millican, Frances
mirror self-recognition test
monkeys; laughter; masturbation; sex with
monogamy
Montel Williams Show, The
Mullally, Megan
