April 2013 – DrZhana

April 2013 – DrZhana

Straights Are More Gay When Gay Is OK

zhanavrangalova

Apr 22nd, 2013

Mostly Straight , Sex Science News , Sexual Fluidity , Uncategorized

We like to think of sexual orientation as something that is pretty stable and that, once established during childhood or early adolescence, doesn’t change much. We certainly don’t think it can change in response to fleeting, casual influences from our environment. Well, a new experimental study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology says what we think is wrong. Across three experiments, researchers at UCLA found that heterosexually-identified men and women reported significantly more same-sex sexual desires and interests when they were exposed to positive, supportive information about homosexuality than when they were exposed to negative, stigmatizing information. In
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Felching, Anyone?

zhanavrangalova

Apr 20th, 2013

Sex Science News , Uncategorized

While sex itself is clearly pretty sexy, sex science is usually not. Once, a friend of my husband who is not a social scientist (he’s a computer geek) decided to read one of my published research papers. After reading a few pages, he said to my husband: “I never thought you could make sex sound so boring!” I’m not sure what he was expecting to find in an academic paper – even one on a sex-related topic, but I can assure you that academic papers, sex or no sex, will not typically give you an erection or make your panties
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New Zealand Approves Gay Marriage – With a Bang!

zhanavrangalova

Apr 19th, 2013

Sex in the News , Uncategorized

As you may have heard, this week New Zealand joined the few civilized, enlightened nations in the world (nope, the U.S. is not one of them) and voted in favor of gay marriage. Here‘s the Washington Post article about it. And here’s one of the awesomest pro-gay marriage speeches by a politician ever recorded.
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Red Is for Sex

zhanavrangalova

Apr 18th, 2013

Uncategorized

From red lipstick in use since 10,000 BC, to red-light districts around the world today, red is the color of sex. Many of us know this intuitively, but now there is a lot of science to back that up. Researchers have studied red in other mammals for a while, but as far as humans go, it all started back in 2008 at University of Rochester. In a series of 5 experiments, Andrew J. Elliot and Daniela Niesta established the following fun facts about the link between red and sex: – a red background in a woman’s photograph led men to
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Sexual Fantasy Role Play Survey

zhanavrangalova

Apr 16th, 2013

Participate in Sex Research , Uncategorized

This is not my study, I’m just passing it along. If you have some time and desire, please follow the link and take the survey. Confidential Sexual Fantasy Role Play Survey Hello! I am a researcher from the Psychology Department of SUNY at New Paltz conducting a Confidential Sexual Fantasy Role Play Survey. Participants must be at least 18 years old and fluent in English. Many questions are of a sexual and personal nature. If you find material of this type offensive you should not participate. The survey is designed to be confidential, you will not be asked to provide
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9-Year-Olds Think About Sex Too

zhanavrangalova

Apr 16th, 2013

Sex Science News , Uncategorized

In the U.S. today, we like to think of pre-adolescents and early adolescents as asexual. We like to keep our image on them as not yet soiled by the filth that is sex. We also tend to think that children and pre-adolescents need to be protected from any kind of exposure or information to anything sex-related. Of course, all available evidence points to the fact that children and pre-adolescents do have sexual interests, desires, curiosities, and behaviors. And there is no evidence to suggest that exposure to sexuality (unless forced) is detrimental to their well-being. But this country often cares
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Urban Dictionary: Zhana

zhanavrangalova

Apr 15th, 2013

Uncategorized

Have you ever looked up your name on Urban Dictionary? I just looked up mine last night, and this is what I found. 1. Zhana Unique name, just like her. Super ah!mazing. She is wonderful. Colorful, wears what she wants. Self-confident and Beautiful. Any guy would be lucky to have her. Wears makeup, doesn’t need it. Not too tall, but that doesn’t matter. Zhana totally rocks. Boy 1: “So you gonna hook up with that girl, dude?” Boy 2: “I dunno. She doens’t seem like a Zhana to me.” 2. Zhana a wonderful a-mase-ing person who is a great friend
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Socialization At Its Worst

zhanavrangalova

Apr 14th, 2013

Uncategorized

These images are from a photo project by JeongMee Yoon. You can read more about it here. I have nothing against girls wearing pink or boys wearing blue. But when ALL girls wear is pink, and ALL boys wear is blue, well, that is disturbing. Because it’s not just the color that is different – it’s the entire worldview. No wonder people often feel like women and men come from different planets. They may be born on the same planet. But our civilization makes sure they grow up on two different planets.
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The Holiday Season Sex Effect

zhanavrangalova

Apr 14th, 2013

Sex Science News , Uncategorized

Sex is a seasonal matter: in the U.S., there’s a spike in sexual activity during the cold, winter months, and then another, smaller spike during early summer. For example, we already know that during these two times of the year, condom sales shoot up, first intercourse happens more often, and children are more often conceived. Consequently, abortions and STI diagnoses increase in the first 3 months of the year and in late summer-early fall. (Here‘s a review paper on this.) These two, 6 months apart, seasonal cycles are so consistent and intriguing, that they have their own names: the holiday
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Sexy Narcissists

zhanavrangalova

Apr 09th, 2013

Sex Science News , Uncategorized

Narcissist are not the nicest people around – they have unrealistically inflated views of themselves, an annoying sense of entitlement, and blatant disregard for others. Yet, they seem to have a special sexual appeal that many men and women fall for, at least initially (until they reveal their true colors). Or so they say narcissists themselves. For example, narcissists claim that: – they find it easier to start new relationships (see here); – they feel they have more alternatives to their current dating partners (see here); – they have more sex partners (see here). But you can’t really trust narcissists.
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