Sex News... Specifically, Who's Watching Porn

The reason Pornhub is one of my favorite sites on the internet isn't really the porn; is they have so many stats and analytics about who's watching it that I love it — also the porno.

The most recent information is: How old are people that are watching porn? According to their stats, the average male user is 36 while the women are 34. But, as one would kind of expect, the largest blocks go in this order:

18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+, aka “People Who Say They're a Hundred Years Old to Get Past Age-Gating”



I'm 25, going on 26, but if there was an age-gated video, I was born January 1st, 1901. I should be allowed to watch this video; I went through two World Wars and saw the fall of Communism.

They also showcased the average age based on country. Three with the highest average age: Japan, Belgium and Italy.



They also showed top searches, the most popular categories based on age and this is interesting because you kind of see the evolution of one's perviness. Although in almost constant is apparently everyone wants to bang their stepmom! Like everyone!! And this is just touching the surface of all these analytics!!! I'm telling you, Pornhub loves analytics more than their 55+ and older users love searching for very very old granny.

We Are Connected to Each Other On Some Emotional Level

The human brain is wired to connect with others so strongly that it experiences what they experience as if it's happening to us.



It's kind of just empathy, but it goes even deeper. A new study from University of Virginia researchers supports the idea.



Results from this latest study shows that we care when things happen to other people, but if someone is close enough to us (as a loved one), the brain doesn't differentiate between it happening to someone else or it happening to us, it's the same thing. But, the brain is almost incapable of doing that with strangers.

And, the way they tested this was kind of crazy. They had participants undergoing magnetic resonance imaging.



During this MRI, they threaten to shock the person in the machine, then taking a break from that, to threaten a friend of theirs; then taking a break from that, to threaten a stranger. The results showed that the regions at the brain for threat response reacted much the same, in a very similar fashion, whether it be to that person, or to one of their friends. But, with a stranger, there was virtually no activity.



There's an evolutionary psychologist by the name of Robin Dunbar...



...and through his research, he has come up with Dunbar's number. This number which is 150 or less people (beyond that number, our brains begin to strain to sync with others).

Basically, we may be much closer to the people we keep around us, than those we let on.

Cheating Creates Emotional Boosts

According to a new study called:



The aforementioned article was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. And it suggests that when people cheat (and it hurts nobody), people actually feel good.

Many of the participants, before they actually took part in this experiment, said that they would feel badly if they cheated. But, it turned out that the majority felt the direct opposite of bad.

The way they came to this conclusion, is they gave participants word-unscrambling tests. For every correct answer, they would get one dollar. After they finished, they were given an answer key to check their answers and report the number of correct answers they had.



The thing is, participants didn't realize that if they corrected their wrong answers, the researchers would know. And, unsurprisingly, 41% of them did.

Additionally, the follow-up assessment showed that on average, the cheaters felt an emotional boost that the honest participants did not.

Alternatively, taking the money out of the situation...



...participants were told that if they saw a pop-up message that said they got the wrong answer and offered the correct answer, they should ignore it, and continue working. Consequently, with no monetary incentive (really just ego), 68% of the people cheated at least once, clicking the button for a correct answer.

Also, in the follow-up assessment, just like the group previously, they had upbeat emotions.

After these studies, the researchers said they were a little appalled at these results.

Proportionally, there is some truth to the saying that when you cheat, the only person you're really cheating, is yourself. So, if you're in school right now, and you cheat your way through tests, you're just screwing yourself (up) for the future.



On the other hand, regardless of how terrible it sounds, lying is very human. It's one of the first things children pick up. Granted, they suck at it.



It could be also argued that it might make sense (or not) to say that lying is a tool to life-hack. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way saying lie to and cheat on everyone. No way! Don't get that idea. I don't do lies, and I can't stand liars either. I'm just using those thoughts to try and excavate explanations on why the loudest liars have (or at least tend to have) joy and the sense of survival by lying.

Quite frankly, by lying, you manipulate perception, thus defeating reality. With all of that typed, if these studies are in fact true, lying is still (and always will be) one of the things I don't recommend doing. There's no substitute for the truth; either it is, or it isn't.