Women's and Men's Reactions to Receiving Unsolicited Genital Images from Men.

Recently, mounting anecdotal reports - mostly by heterosexual women on Internet-based dating platforms - have drawn attention to the frequency of men sending photos of their own genitals (i.e., "dick pics").

Sexting among singles in the USA: prevalence of sending, receiving, and sharing sexual messages and images.

The transmission of sexual images and messages via mobile phone or other electronic media (sexting) has been associated with a variety of mostly negative social and behavioural consequences. Research on sexting has focussed on youth, with limited data across demographics and with little known about the sharing of private sexual images and messages with third parties. The present study examines sexting attitudes and behaviours, including sending, receiving, and sharing of sexual messages and images, across gender, age, and sexual orientation.

Intense, Passionate, Romantic Love: A Natural Addiction? How the Fields That Investigate Romance and Substance Abuse Can Inform Each Other.

Individuals in the early stage of intense romantic love show many symptoms of substance and non-substance or behavioral addictions, including euphoria, craving, tolerance, emotional and physical dependence, withdrawal and relapse. We have proposed that romantic love is a natural (and often positive) addiction that evolved from mammalian antecedents by 4 million years ago as a survival mechanism to encourage hominin pair-bonding and reproduction, seen cross-culturally today in Homo sapiens. Brain scanning studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging support this view: feelings of intense romantic love engage regions of the brain's "reward system," specifically dopamine-rich regions, including the ventral tegmental area, also activated during drug and/or behavioral addiction.

Prevalence of Experiences With Consensual Nonmonogamous Relationships: Findings From Two National Samples of Single Americans.

Although academic and popular interest in consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) is increasing, little is known about the prevalence of CNM. Using two separate U.S.

Relationship dealbreakers: traits people avoid in potential mates.

Mate preference research has focused on traits people desire in partners (i.e., dealmakers) rather than what traits they avoid (i.

Four broad temperament dimensions: description, convergent validation correlations, and comparison with the Big Five.

A new temperament construct based on recent brain physiology literature has been investigated using the Fisher Temperament Inventory (FTI). Four collections of behaviors emerged, each associated with a specific neural system: the dopamine, serotonin, testosterone, and estrogen/oxytocin system. These four temperament suites have been designated: (1) Curious/Energetic, (2) Cautious/Social Norm Compliant, (3) Analytical/Tough-minded, and (4) Prosocial/Empathetic temperament dimensions.

Dating and sexual behavior among single parents of young children in the United States.

Theory and research on partnered parents suggests trade-offs between parenting and sexuality, with those trade-offs most pronounced among mothers of young children. However, little research has focused on how a growing demographic of single parents negotiates dating and sexual activity. The current study drew upon a 2012 nationally representative sample of 5,481 single Americans 21 years of age and older, of whom 4.

Neural correlates of four broad temperament dimensions: testing predictions for a novel construct of personality.

Four suites of behavioral traits have been associated with four broad neural systems: the 1) dopamine and related norepinephrine system; 2) serotonin; 3) testosterone; 4) and estrogen and oxytocin system. A 56-item questionnaire, the Fisher Temperament Inventory (FTI), was developed to define four temperament dimensions associated with these behavioral traits and neural systems. The questionnaire has been used to suggest romantic partner compatibility.

Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love.

The present study examined the neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Ten women and 7 men married an average of 21.4 years underwent fMRI while viewing facial images of their partner.

Romantic love: a mammalian brain system for mate choice.

Mammals and birds regularly express mate preferences and make mate choices. Data on mate choice among mammals suggest that this behavioural 'attraction system' is associated with dopaminergic reward pathways in the brain. It has been proposed that intense romantic love, a human cross-cultural universal, is a developed form of this attraction system.

Defining the brain systems of lust, romantic attraction, and attachment.

Mammals and birds have evolved three primary, discrete, interrelated emotion-motivation systems in the brain for mating, reproduction, and parenting: lust, attraction, and male-female attachment. Each emotion-motivation system is associated with a specific constellation of neural correlates and a distinct behavioral repertoire. Lust evolved to initiate the mating process with any appropriate partner; attraction evolved to enable individuals to choose among and prefer specific mating partners, thereby conserving their mating time and energy; male-female attachment evolved to enable individuals to cooperate with a reproductive mate until species-specific parental duties have been completed.