Men Can't Resist Women's Natural Curves

Daily Telegraph 25th February 2010

Admiring a woman's hour glass figure can give men the same "buzz" as drinking alcohol or taking drugs, according to a survey pubished today.

Researchers found that men who were looking at plus size women and their curvaceous figures activated part of the brain associated with feelings of reward. Scientists say their findings explain the view that curvier women such as Nigella Lawson are sexually appealing.

The scientists showed pictures of the behinds of seven women to 14 men with an average age of 25. They then carried out cosmetic surgery on the women, airbrushing fat from their waists to their derrieres but not changing their weight, in effect making them more curvaceous.

Brain scans of the men reveled that after the changes the curvier women activated parts of the brain associated with rewards, including areas associated with responses to alcohol and drugs.

Writing in his journal reseacher Steve Platek, a cognitive neuroscientist in USA, said "These findings could help our understanding of pornography addiction".

The scientists also found that changes in a woman's BMI (Body Mass Index) only affected brain areas linked to simple visual appreciation of a woman's size and shape.