10 Psychological Perspectives On Sexual Fetishes

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 10 Psychological Perspectives On Sexual Fetishes</h1> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="meta" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> According to Freud, sexual fetishes were perversions caused by childhood trauma, and they could be remedied or alleviated by psychoanalysts for a reasonable fee. Modern research has turned away from this perspective, though the ultimate reason for the diverse range of different things that people find attractive is elusive. Evolutionary psychologists believe that this diversity in attraction helps to promote sexual stimulation and therefore the propagation of the species, regardless of the environment it finds itself in.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some say that Freud may have been right after all, and the foundations of fetishes are indeed laid by childhood experiences and stimuli, though not necessarily trauma. The answer for the fetishes per se may be elusive, but studies on particular sexual fetishes have brought up a few interesting theories. While they may not apply to everyone who professes to a particular sexual fantasy, they are fascinating explorations of human sexual psychology.</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">10</span>Transsexual Fantasies</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Transgender" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91329" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Transgender.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />It is an odd fact that many men who identify themselves as straight admit to fantasies about either pre- or post-operative male-to-female transsexuals or male cross-dressers, while they have no attraction to homosexual or heterosexual men. This attraction is known as gynandromorphophilia, though it is usually expressed in crude pornographic terms as interest in “she-males,” “chicks with dicks,” or “lady boys.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> According to homosexual reporter Daniel Harris, who spent time as a drag queen, such an individual is easy to understand as “an opportunist who is willing to overlook the imperfections of the disguise for the sake of a good blow job, which he has heard through the sexual grapevine, correctly as everyone knows is more expertly administered by men than by women.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> There have been few studies on the phenomenon, though one by Northwestern University suggested that of the respondents who admitted to attraction to transsexuals, 51 percent identified as straight. While for many, the attraction to transsexuals manifested as a sexual desire separate from their heterosexuality, for some, it formed the central part of their sexuality. One study quoted a straight man with an interest in trans women, who attributed his attraction to “an exoticness, a uniqueness, something that can’t be obtained elsewhere. They’re just <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">totally unique</span> in their sexuality in that they’re both men and women and at the same time, neither men nor women. To me that’s my fascination.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> A large problem with the study of the phenomena is that many transsexuals rightly object to being classified as a “fetish object.” Trans blogger Sass expressed her disagreement with the way the discussion is framed: “The question shouldn’t be why these men are attracted to us, but why is society<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">forcing us to justify this attraction</span> in the first place. I feel the question arises because people have already pre-judged that being sexually or romantically attracted to people like me is perverted and immoral.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> While she is right that people shouldn’t have to justify their attraction to other consenting adults, it remains an interesting question in terms of the psychology of sexuality. According to research by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, the answer may lie in the effect that the penis has on the male sexual brain. Evolutionary psychology suggests the presence of an erect phallus can actually have stimulating effects on men, as it is associated with male-on-male aggression, territorialism, and attracting females. The combination of female secondary sexual features with the phallus may have the effect of<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">activating primeval fight-or-flight responses</span> and also orgasm via the sympathetic nervous system.</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">9</span>Rape Fantasies</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Rape" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91330" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />Many studies have indicated that one of the most common sexual fantasies among women is the rape fantasy, a phenomenon that is rarely discussed due to the very real possibility that it will be used by foul individuals to justify actual rape, a horrifying and dehumanizing experience. An analysis of 20 studies conducted over 20 years have indicated that 37–51 percent of women have had such fantasies, and they’re regular or preferred for 9–17 percent.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> According to research by Joseph Critella and Jenny Bivona, there are <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">many (often contradictory) reasons</span> for this fantasy: For a minority of women, it relates to masochism. Studies have linked societal sexual repression with such fantasies, indicating a desire to avoid sexual blame. Openness to sexual experience (a character trait) has been correlated. Although the evidence is inconclusive, it’s possible that some women view being raped as a sign of their irresistible desirability. Male rape culture (in other words, social pressure to buy into male fantasies) may be a factor. Some feel that women have a biological predisposition to surrender, which has been observed in other species but not empirically tested in humans. Being raped can activate the sympathetic nervous system (again, related to flight-or-fight responses and orgasm). Another cause may be the thought of adversary transformation, a “romantic” trope about “taming” men through sex. Still other possible reasons could be a reaction to trauma (a psychological defensive mechanism) or laziness (according to anecdotal reports).</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> A blogger under the pseudonym of Ranty McRanterson gave her experience:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I have the rape fantasy, I’m gonna come out and say it because I can actually explain it. It is incredibly common to sexualize fears. All kinds of fears. Just because I fantasize this <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">doesn’t mean</span> that I actually want it to happen. Think about it physically for a second, fear creates adrennaline, and adrennaline is exciting and that helps get you off pretty damn quick. It’s also common for sexually abused children to fantasize about rape as adults, does that mean they want to be raped? NO!</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Professor Meredith Chivers has suggested that such fantasies may flourish through an absence of imagined negative repercussions, tapping into primitive sexual instincts while avoiding the reality of the trauma. The key issue that needs to be understood is that a rape fantasy is still a fantasy, which means it is a completely internal mental experience under the complete control of the person doing the fantasizing. Therefore, it stands in stark contrast to the violence, coercion, and loss of control in actual rape.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> For that reason, some prefer to refer to them as surrender fantasies or “fantasies about being ravished.” Psychology professor Marta Meana, a self-avowed feminist, believes it comes down to the idea that for a woman, “being desired is the orgasm,” and that women’s desire “is not relational [but] narcissistic.” Thus, so-called “rape fantasies” aren’t about a secret yearning to be the victim of a sexual crime but rather a fantasy about willing surrender to a chosen partner, with the <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">illusion of danger</span>, while actual control still lies with the woman.</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">8</span>Vorarephilia</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Cannibalism" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91331" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Cannibalism.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />The sexual desire to eat another person or be eaten by another person violates one of humanity’s oldest taboos. It is known online as vorarephilia or simply vore. At best, it is a harmless fantasy expressed online or with a partner who is either similarly inclined or supremely tolerant. At worst, it can combine with unstable mental conditions and lead to murderous acts by individuals like German consensual cannibal killer Armin Miewes, Japanese murderer Issei Sagawa, or the highly disturbing creepiness of cannibal cop<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">Gilberto Valle</span>.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The fetish is often linked with other related fetishes, such as masochism, hypoxyphilia (suffocation fantasy), snuff (fantasy about watching another die or to be killed), or macrophilia (attraction to giants). There are <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">many variations</span> of the theme online, such as hard and soft vore (the former involving violence and gore, the latter involving a person being ingested whole), as well as varieties where people are ingested via the penis, vagina, anus, or breast.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The main issue arises within the difference between vorarephilia, which is usually fantasy-based and relatively harmless, and sexual cannibalism, which can manifest as a psychosexual disorder which, in certain individuals (like sociopaths), can lead to horrific murders. Pure fantasists of vore or cannibalism are the ultimate expression of sadomasochistic urges, with the predator dominant and the prey submissive. But for those with other psychological conditions, the desire <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">can lead to murder</span>, especially if their fetish is linked with erotophonophilia (aka lust murder), involving the sexualized murder and mutilation of a victim.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Oddly, convicted sexual cannibals are not always necessarily psychotic or otherwise immoral. According to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psychology Today</span>, when one cannibal was accused of rape, he was indignant: “I may kill them and eat them, but I never raped anyone! You make sure people know that!” Another was asked why he had asked his victim what his favorite dishes were, and the offender replied, “I wouldn’t want to insult him by <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">cooking him the wrong way</span>.”</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">7</span>Cuckolding</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91332" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Walking-In-On-It.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />Traditionally known as troilism, cuckolding is a fetish in which a man derives sexual pleasure from watching or merely knowing about his wife or partner having sex with another man. Often, the pleasure is linked to the other man being a better lover or better endowed, which is why cuckolding has been linked by some to masochism, due to the humiliation factor. Dan Savage argued that cuckolding is the eroticization of male anxiety about their partner cheating on them.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some believe that the fetish is actually linked to a phenomenon known as sperm competition. When a woman has sex with multiple men, the men exhibit (often unconscious) changes in behavior and biology designed to increase their likelihood of fertilizing an egg. Their sperm count goes up, and they tend to thrust deeper and harder during sex. On the other hand, one psychologist blames “<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">king bee syndrome</span>,” in which men gain psychological gratification from the idea of other men wanting to sleep with his partner.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some argue that cuckolding is a fetish that appeals to the highly educated and intelligent, to whom cuckolding represents a form of psychological sadomasochism that arouses through mental anguish. This argument is presented by a man with cuckold fantasies who happens to have a PhD, so it could be taken with a grain of salt, but cuckolding-related sex therapist Susan Brock theorizes along similar lines.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> She claims that competition for a female stimulates sexual desire and performance, because nature naturally tends toward laziness unless there is a compelling reason to up one’s game. The argument is that most modern men are unable to enjoy such fantasies because of jealousy, which stems from archaic concepts about “owning” one’s wife, while intellectuals can get past the jealousy response and reap the benefit of the <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">sexual thrill caused by competition</span>.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Rachel Uchitel, who was engaged in an extramarital affair with Tiger Woods, reported getting an email detailing the golf star’s cuckolding fantasy, which read:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> “I had a dream we were married and I was leading the tournament. I came home, excited to see you, and <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">there you were in the bedroom</span> getting f—ked by Derek [Jeter] and David [Boreanaz]. Some part of me thinks you would like that. Now I can’t get back to sleep. My body is tired, but my mind is awake. Need an Ambien.”</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">6</span>Foot Fetishism</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91333" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Foot-Fetish.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />Attraction to feet and footwear is surprisingly common, being the most fetishized of all non-genital-related body parts or clothing. Freud believed that humans sexualized feet because they resemble penises . . . somehow. University of California San Diego neuroscientist Vilanayar Ramachandran has another intriguing possibility.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Ramachandran was researching the brain phenomena that can cause phantom limb syndrome and discovered it was likely caused due to the “body image map.” The parts of the brain that are associated with and control different parts of the body stayed active even if those parts had been lost. Bizarrely, he discovered that for some foot amputees, the body image map could actually become rewired and sexualize the missing limb, explaining reports by amputees of sexual pleasure and orgasms from their phantom feet.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> It has long been noted that in the somatosensory homunculus, a visual expression of where touch is processed by the brain, the area associated with the feet and toes is adjacent to the area associated with the genitals. Ramachandran thought this could explain the common foot fetish: “Maybe even many of us so-called normal people have a bit of cross-wiring, which would explain why we <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">like to have our toes sucked</span>.” Not everyone was a believer, however. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Discover Magazine</span>‘s Neuroskeptic pointed out the feet and toes were the <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">least erotic</span> parts of the body. Quentin Tarantino, for one,<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">might disagree</span>.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">5</span>Tentacles</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="iStock_000028455808_Small" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91363" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/iStock_000028455808_Small.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />Japan is notorious for erotica involving tentacles, animated or otherwise, and it appears to have a surprisingly long history. The first appearance was in an early 19th-century <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shunga</span> (“spring picture”), a form of erotic painting popular in the Edo period. One of the most renowned <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shunga</span> artists was named Hokusai, who painted the famous <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Great Wave</span>, as well as the notorious <span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife</span><span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">, which depicts a woman having sex with two octopi. Thus began a long and storied history of sexualized cephalopods, though the notion of “tentacle rape” may be of recent vintage. According to Dr. Danielle Talerico, “Japanese audiences of the Edo period would have associated [Hokusai’s painting] with consensual sex.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some claim that censorship may actually have spawned the interest in tentacle porn. In the early 1900s, in order to improve their image, Japan banned uncensored porn unless it was intended for immediate export. These laws stayed in place throughout the 20th century, preventing genitals from being visible in Japanese erotica. In 1986, manga artist Toshio Maeda circumvented these laws with the movie <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Urotsukidoji</span>, which involved supernatural beast sex in which penises were replaced by things resembling them, most notably tentacles. In the aftermath of <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Urotsukidoji</span>‘s success,<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">many other imitators</span> have followed.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some believe that the phenomenon has a deeper and more worrying significance. Dr. J.P. Dahlquist and Dr. L.G. Vigilant claimed:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The experience of hentai is <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">morally distancing</span>. Tentacle hentai offers the telegenetic signs of the most perverse and debased sexualities. It opens for fantastic examination a sexuality that transgresses all “simulated” moralities of the “real” world, where tentacle sex between nubile girl-women and cloned boy-men monsters are the order of the day—a monstrous sex-feast of the most abnormal acts: pedophilic bestiality, sex with machines, sex with cyborgs, sex with dangerous protruding tentacles, and, of course, an endless stream of the most debasing, brutal, and humiliating rape images.</span></div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">4</span>Vampires</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Vampire" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91335" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Vampire.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />While the eroticization of blood-sucking immortals has reached new heights in recent years due to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</span> and <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">True Blood</span>, the phenomenon has been well-known in Western culture for a long time.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some see the reason behind it in evolutionary psychology, particularly in the desire for a mate who can provide and care for children. Vampires are usually portrayed as tall, handsome, virile, wealthy, and powerful, signaling good genes and high levels of testosterone. The fact that they are unpredictable and supernaturally powerful activates the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine. Another factor is that vampires are inhuman and therefore “forbidden love,” which again releases dopamine, which is associated with focus and goal-seeking. Rutgers University’s Helen Fisher even argues that it may be that women with high levels of estrogen are more likely to be attracted to <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">portrayals of high-testosterone men</span>, even if they’re dead and drink human blood.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Donovan Gwinner, who teaches a class on vampires in popular culture at Aurora University, believes that there may be an economic link to the attraction to vampires: “In times of economic contraction, fear of job loss, and war, the vampire myth really speaks to people. What’s so bad about being powerful, almost immortal, always in control, and incredibly desirable?” Meanwhile, DeSales University psychology professor Katherine Ramsland spent several years researching vampire lore obsessives and came to the conclusion that it was all about the erotic appeal of danger and death:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s kind of like autoerotic asphyxia, except that’s real. In terms of fantasy, the vampire mystique is 90 percent sexual. It’s a <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">metaphor for dangerous sex</span>. Because if it goes wrong, you’re gone.</span></div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">3</span>Paraphilic Infantilism</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Man in Diaper" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91336" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Man-in-Diaper.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />Infantilists are those who derive pleasure and stimulation from dressing or acting like babies, which may involve wearing diapers or baby clothing, drinking from a bottle, crawling on the floor, being spanked, or similar behaviors. Online communities engaged in this paraphilia are divided into the adult babies (ABs), who enjoy the role-playing aspect, and diaper lovers (DLs). They’re collectively known as the <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">ABDL community</span>.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) classified this fetish with masochism, but if elements of humiliation or suffering are not present, then it doesn’t exactly meet the criteria. It has been linked to a range of other paraphilias (odd sexual desires), including sexual transvestism (in this case, dressing as a baby of the opposite sex), urophilia and coprophilia (sexual pleasure from urinating or defecating into diapers), and lactophilia (breast-feeding). There is little to no correlation between infantilism and paraphilia, as adult babies aren’t attracted to children; they <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">just want to be children</span>.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> There is no general consensus on what causes the development of the actual infantilism fetish, but it is believed to be linked with maladaptive learning and faulty imprinting in childhood as well as erotic targeting errors. However, for some, the sexual element is played down, with a greater emphasis on the nurturing and attention-seeking side of pretending to be a baby. A recent study has suggested that the paraphilia develops at around age 12 in women and age 17 in men. While various behaviors were present in both genders, women tended to prefer role-playing elements such as playing with baby toys or sexual or nonsexual play with a “daddy” figure, while men were more likely to use diapers. While there was a tendency for women with the fetish to have suffered childhood abuse (though not always), this was rare in male adult babies.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> One of the reasons why so little is known about paraphilic infantilism is that many practitioners feel it does not cause them any functional distress or impair them in their everyday lives. This would mean that for most people, it<span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">would not be classified</span> as a paraphilic disorder.</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">2</span>Somnophilia</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Sleeping Woman" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91337" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Sleeping-Woman.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />This fetish involves arousal at the idea of caressing, touching, and engaging in sexual activity, without force or violence, with a person who is asleep or unconscious. Some have referred to the condition as pseudo-necrophilia. In 1972, Dr. Victor Calef and Dr. Edward Weinshel called it “Sleeping Beauty syndrome” and suggested that patients who complained about their partners falling asleep before sex could be initiated were actually covering up a deep-seated sexual fascination with their sleeping partner.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In a 2006 thesis on sleep, Christina Eugene wrote: “Sleep is the essential objectifier of all life. The passivity of sleep transforms subjects into inanimate objects, and in doing so removes the subject’s privilege of being able to act on the world of objects. [ . . . ] This rendering of people into inanimate objects allows them to be fundamentally treated as objects—consumed, fetishized, and controlled.” In another thesis, Carolyn Fay wrote, “Contemporary sleep fetish culture is driven by the idea that the sleeping person is an absent person. [ . . . ] To the fetishist, sleep is that perfect moment when consciousness is evacuated, leaving a <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">living, breathing fragment</span>, worthy of love. [ . . . ] If the person wakes up, the fantasy and the fetish object become lost.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> This particular paraphilia became newsworthy following the many allegations of sexual assault raised against Bill Cosby in 2015. The fallen actor is alleged to have drugged and raped multiple women since the 1970s, using Quaaludes and Benadryl. Some witness testimony, including women who had consensual sex with Cosby, seems to confirm this. But in legal and moral terms, connecting the two is a distraction, as it is just as likely that Cosby used the drugs merely or primarily to <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">prevent the women from resisting</span> his sexual advances.</div> </h1> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">1</span>Strabismusophilia</h2> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="Cross-Eyed" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91338" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Cross-Eyed.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />The name of this particular fetish, which is admittedly rare, was coined by Dr. Mark Griffiths for his blog, where he discusses the psychology of paraphilia. (While Griffiths is a professor of gambling studies, his amateur musing on fetishes is well-researched and interesting.) Strabismus is the condition of having misaligned eyes, and thus strabismusophilia is an attraction to people who are cross-eyed. What makes this interesting is some that this attraction actually led to some of the earliest musings related to paraphilias.</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> French philosopher Rene Descartes had an attraction to cross-eyed women, which apparently began with a childhood infatuation with a girl who was mildly cross-eyed. While at the time, he loved her in her entirety, later in life, he found himself more attracted to other women with the same condition, though it took him a while to put two and two together. On one occasion, Queen Christina of Sweden asked the philosopher what causes people to love one person more than another before they know anything about their relative merits. According to a 2011 paper by Alex Voorhoeve:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Descartes replied that when we experience a strong sensation, this causes the brain to crease like a piece of paper. And when the stimulus stops, the brain uncreases, but it stays ready to be creased again in the same way. And when a similar stimulus is presented, then we get the same response, because the brain is ready to crease again. And what did he mean by all this? Well, he gave an example. He said that all his life he had had a fetish for cross-eyed women. Whenever he came across a cross-eyed woman, desire would enflame him. And he figured out after introspection, that this was because his brain had been strongly creased by <span style="transition: all 0.25s ease-in;">his first childhood love</span>, who was cross-eyed.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> This is very similar to the Pavlovian concept of conditioning as an explanation for the rise of sexual fetishes. While strabismusophilia may not be so common, other eye-related paraphilias (oculophilias) have been documented, such as eyeball licking. Dr. Ruth Neustifter gave an explanation for that one in an online article:</div> <div style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eyeballs are covered in naturally salty water used to keep them lubricated and clean, which also gives them a distinctively smooth and salty flavour. While the eyeball doesn’t feel in the same way that our fingers and tongue do, it can sense pressure and temperature, making eyeball licking an optimal form of stimulation. Pretty much everyone recognizes the eye as a vulnerable area of the body, making it an intimate area for some people. Where there is vulnerability and intimacy, you might just find eroticism! Some folks enjoy doing the licking, both for the sensation and for the ability to enjoy their partner’s vulnerability in this way. And for those who like to be licked, they find the situation as well as the physical stimulation to be highly enjoyable. This isn’t a universal erogenous zone, so many folks won’t get the attraction even if they try it.</span></div> </h1> </div>

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10 Strange Ways We’re All Getting Intelligence Wrong

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="color: #6d6d6d; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;"><br />Most of us like to think we’re pretty clever. Maybe not Mensa-level geniuses, but still above average in the braininess stakes. If pressed, we’d probably describe ourselves as “fairly intelligent.”</span></h1> <div class="ga more" id="div-gpt-ad-1358325249632-6" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; display: inline-block; float: right; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Unfortunately, we’d probably be wrong. Although it may seem like we’re head and shoulders above the idiots we encounter online, science disagrees. Here are 10 ways that we all get our notions of intelligence completely wrong.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">10</span> Search Engines Make You Feel Smarter Than You Really Are</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="10-feature-search-engine-462183549" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87894" height="168" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/10-feature-search-engine-462183549.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> We’ve all been there. In the middle of a passionate debate over trivia, someone whips out a phone and looks up the answer. Maybe you’ve even been that person. If so, we’ve got some bad news. All that googling has made you feel smarter than you really are.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In early 2015, a group of Yale researchers decided to test how the Internet has affected our perceptions of intelligence. Over a series of nine experiments, subjects were given questions of varying levels of difficulty and asked to answer them either with or without the use of a search engine. Then they rated their own level of knowledge on utterly unrelated topics. Care to guess what happened?</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Those subjects who’d used the Internet vastly overrated their own intelligence. In one experiment, when they simply looked up how to use a zipper, they were convinced that they knew about stuff like the formation of America’s first labor unions or seasonal hurricane patterns. In another, when they failed to find the answer to a question about ancient Kushite culture, the subjects felt like history geniuses.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> This happens because of something called “transactive memory systems.” When in groups, we humans tend to divide up cognitive tasks to make things simpler. As long as one guy knows about seasonal hurricane patterns, no one else has to. Well, that one guy is now the Internet. As a result of his omnipresence, we’re no longer differentiating between what we know and what we think we know. This leads all of us to overestimate our expertise in everything to a hilarious degree.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">9</span> Even Experts Pretend They Know More Than They Do</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="9-experts-sb10063567v-001" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87895" height="168" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/9-experts-sb10063567v-001.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> On the other hand, not everyone is lying about their expertise. Some people really are experts and could give you a detailed analysis of Kushite history without batting an eyelid. Yet these experts might not be as clever as they think. Studies have shown that even geniuses will pretend to know about things they couldn’t possibly understand.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> You know those sketches where Jimmy Kimmel asks a bunch of hipsters about bands that don’t exist, and the hipsters act like they know what he’s talking about? Researchers at Cornell have been doing this for years. Only instead of bands, they’ve been asking about made-up scientific terms. And instead of hipsters, they’ve been asking actual scientists. They’ve found that up to 90 percent of self-identified experts will proclaim knowledge about fictional concepts like “plates of parallax,” “ultra-lipid,” and “cholarine.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In fact, the more subjects seem to know about actual science, the more willing they are to claim that they know about made-up science. The problem is one of confidence. If we assume that we are experts in a field—even if we really are—we start to mistake the bits of clutter in our minds, like false theories and bored naval-gazing, with the honest-to-God truth.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">8</span> Men Highly Overestimate Their Mathematical Abilities</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="8-mathematician-478970129" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87896" height="168" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/8-mathematician-478970129.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> It’s no secret that there are far more men working in science and engineering than there are women. It’s also no secret that girls tend to score higher on math tests than their male peers. The source for this discrepancy might not be due to workplace sexism. Studies have revealed that men tend to wildly overestimate their own mathematical abilities.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In 2015, researchers gathered two pools of subjects, one with 122 undergraduates and the other with 184 regular participants. Each group was asked to take a math test and then report on how well they thought they did. In both cases, researchers found that female subjects guessed their results with surprising accuracy. Male subjects, on the other hand,overestimated their abilities to an insane degree.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> As an add-on, those in the 184-strong group were asked about the graduate courses they’d be willing to take. The overconfident men were far more likely to pump for math-related courses, suggesting that this inability to measure their skills might be why more men study science and tech.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">7</span> Your Brainpower Is Worth Less Than You Think It Is</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="7-brain-lightbulb-101511232" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87897" height="168" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/7-brain-lightbulb-101511232.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The human brain is an amazing thing. Without even thinking about it, you can monitor your own body, read a listicle, and pretend to be working, all at once. Given all this phenomenal capacity, how much do you think that your brain power would be worth? The answer is—not a lot.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In a slightly tongue-in-cheek paper, a University of Leicester researcher recently calculated how much your brain power might be worth. Assuming that the average power consumption of an adult human equals 100 watts, they deduced that the human brain takes 20 watts to run. Then they compared this to the average charges of UK electricity companies. The results were disappointing, to say the least.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> They concluded that a single penny should be able to buy 3 hours, 7 minutes, and 30 seconds of continuous human thought. Even if you’re proudly sporting an IQ of just 65, that’s a depressingly low amount. While the study was obviously done in semi-jest, it does show that even the cleverest brain isn’t the titanic, energy-spewing supercomputer that we undoubtedly wish it was.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">6</span> You Become Stupider In A City</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="6-crowd-91439881" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87898" height="174" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/6-crowd-91439881.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Some cities are bywords for intelligence. New York, Paris, and London all reek of sophistication and clever wit—places where geniuses ponder existence from their penthouse apartments. But city living isn’t quite as intellectually engaging as we might suppose. Move to a city and watch your mental faculties fall off a cliff.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Scientists have found that being in an urban environment can have a catastrophic effect on your intelligence. In one University of Michigan study, scientists found that just a few minutes on a crowded city street can reduce our self-control and damage our ability to remember things. To prove this, the researchers had two groups of subjects take a walk, either in an arboretum or on a busy downtown street. Then the participants were asked to complete some simple tests. Those who’d been walking on the city street performed abysmally.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Attention and working memory were both badly hit, and the subjects’ moods were also worse. In short, their brains stopped functioning properly, turning their owners into temporary idiots. Frighteningly, the study concluded that you can induce some of these effects simply by looking at a picture of a bustling city street.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div class="ga" id="div-gpt-ad-1366669464627-0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; display: inline-block; float: right; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">5</span> Your Social Attitudes Affect Your Intelligence</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="5-politician-200275038-001" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87899" height="193" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/5-politician-200275038-001.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Republican wing nut. Libtard. Modern American English is full of handy insults for suggesting that your political opponent is a moron. But it turns out that not all of those insults are utterly groundless. Researchers have shown that those with specific social attitudes may be considerably less intelligent.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In one of the most controversial studies of the last decade, a paper from Brock University, Canada, linked conservative beliefs with having a low IQ. Researchers took two studies from the UK that followed children born in 1958 and 1970. These kids had their intelligence tested at age 10 or 11 and their levels of social conservatism measured at age 30 or 33. The researchers found that those who tested poorly for intelligence as children were far more likely to hold typically right wing social views.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> We should note that this didn’t include fiscal conservatives or libertarians, only those with reactionary social opinions. The reason is that people with a low IQ might find the world a scary place and flee to reassuring structures with simple messages. The authors noted that you could probably make a similar argument for those with extreme liberal views (the sort of people who declare that “everyone’s special!”), although this has yet to be studied.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">4</span> We Wildly Underestimate Our Learning Abilities</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="4-folding-shirt-186324219" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87900" height="185" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/4-folding-shirt-186324219.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> After multiple entries about how we’re all dumber than we realize, here’s a reassuring one. According to the <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of Consumer Research</span>, we all underestimate our learning abilities to a ridiculous degree.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In 2010, researchers presented subjects with new tasks that they might find slightly difficult, such as quickly folding a shirt in a new way or using a keyboard with a different layout. Initially, the subjects were confident about their ability to perform the task. But after a few minutes of experimentation, almost all of them changed their view, becoming insanely pessimistic about their ability to perform the task in either the short or the long term.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> That happened because humans aren’t good at seeing a learning curve. We expect to be good at what we do. When we’re not, we immediately give up and decide we can’t do it. That’s why people stop studying Spanish or learning to play the flute. At the first hurdle, we decide we must naturally suck.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Luckily, the study proved otherwise. After four sessions of practicing their new task, the participants stopped underrating themselves and became confident again. The lesson: Don’t give up. You’re probably a better learner than you realize.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">3</span> IQ Scores Don’t Just Measure Intelligence</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="3-test-use-this-179878829" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87901" height="205" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/3-test-use-this-179878829.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> IQ scores are the universal standard of intelligence. Everyone knows that a guy with an IQ of 175 must be a Stephen Hawking–level genius. Equally, they know that someone with an IQ of 65 must be absolutely stupid. At least, that’s how it’s meant to work. In reality, IQ scores measure more than just your intelligence. They measure how motivated you are in taking the test.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Generally, the people who get high scores on IQ tests are the ones who want to do well. To get a gargantuan IQ score, you need to be both intelligent and determined. To get a low score, you only have to be lacking in motivation.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> This means that while the guy with a 175 IQ is undoubtedly clever, the guy with a 65 IQ might well be a genius who just happens to be unimaginably lazy. In 2011, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania set up a series of incentives for subjects to do well on an IQ test. Across the board, they noticed that people’s scores skyrocketed. Far from being the last word on intelligence, IQ scores mostly measure how much or how little you care.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">2</span> Politics Makes All Of Us Stupider</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="2-gun-politics-509891783" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-87903" height="183" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2-gun-politics-509891783.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> As presidential campaigns heat up and the news turns up its partisan hectoring to full blast, it can be easy to assume that modern politics is making our world a worse place. But according to science, the culture wars aren’t just wrecking America. They’re making all of us stupider.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In 2013, a Yale study set out to measure the effects of political allegiances on our intelligence. Participants were given a math test to gauge their numeracy and then assigned to one of two fake studies. One study was about the effectiveness of a hand cream, using made-up numbers to point to an inevitable conclusion. The other study used the same numbers but was dressed up as a study about the effectiveness of gun control. Half of those getting the gun control study were given data showing that gun control worked. The other half received data suggesting that gun control didn’t work. Insanely, the subjects wound up answering along political lines.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Depending on their beliefs, both Democrats and Republicans went out of their way to “prove” what either MSNBC or Fox had already told them about gun control. In the process, they tortured the numbers until the math fit their political biases. Rather than being dispassionate or rational when it comes to politics, it turns out that we’re all just one fake study away from plumbing new depths of dumbness.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">1</span> The Smartest Of Us Are Often The Stupidest Of All</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Let’s say that none of this applies to you so far. Let’s say that you’re a math expert with an IQ of 205 who never lies, who lives in the country, and who never uses search engines. Now let’s go even further and say that you have a whole shelf full of Nobel prizes and a big fat sash proclaiming that you’re the “Smartest Human on Earth.” You still won’t be safe from the curse of dumbness. In fact, science says that you may be the stupidest of us all.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In day-to-day life, most of us take mental shortcuts to avoid overtaxing our brains. In most cases, this allows us to concentrate on the stuff that really matters, like writing our <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Star Wars</span> fan-fic. But occasionally, it leads us to make hilariously bad decisions that can ruin our lives.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> To show you what we mean, we’re going to ask you to answer a simple math question. A bat and ball cost a dollar and 10 cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Most of you took a simple shortcut here and wrongly said that the ball costs 10 cents. In reality, it costs five cents (with the bat being $1.05). It’s the sort of question that nearly everyone gets wrong. We know this because genius psychologist Daniel Kahneman has been asking people this question for years, along with other questions designed to uncover our lazy mental shortcuts. He found that the cleverest among us tend to be more prone than anyone else to these dumb mistakes.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> This goes beyond simple math questions. Other psychologists have found that respected critical thinkers are less likely to engage their brains when thinking about globally important things like climate change and the risks associated with nuclear power. Instead, they ignore all the evidence in favor of jumping to the simplest conclusions (and then sounding off loudly about how qualified they supposedly are). In some ways, it’s kind of comforting to know that the brightest are more capable of being dumb than the rest of us. In other ways, it’s utterly terrifying.</div> </div>

10 Strange Ways We’re All Getting Intelligence Wrong

Most of us like to think we’re pretty clever. Maybe not Mensa-level geniuses, but still above average in the braininess stakes. If pressed...

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10 Eccentric Eating Habits Of Influential Figures

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Humanity has always had an intimate relationship with food. So it should come as no surprise that some of the most notable, influential figures throughout history have often had bizarre notions of how and what to eat.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">10</span>  Zuckerberg Only Eats What He Kills</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="10-hunter-468551946" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88922" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/10-hunter-468551946.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is famous for taking on yearlong challenges of self-improvement, such as wearing a tie every day in 2009 and studying Chinese every day in 2010. It came as a bit of a shock, though, when he announced in 2011 that “the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself.” After announcing the decision on his private page, he posted, “I just killed a pig and a goat,” which prompted various reactions from his followers.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> According to an email that Zuckerberg sent to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortune</span> magazine, “I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> His instructor was Silicon Valley chef Jesse Cool, who introduced Zuckerberg to local farmers and advised him on the slaughters of his first chicken, pig, and goat.”He cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it,” said Cool to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortune</span>. Zuckerberg’s first kill, however, was a lobster that he boiled alive. Initially, this was emotionally difficult for Zuckerberg, but he said he felt better after eating it. As he told <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortune</span> in an interview, “The most interesting thing was how special it felt to eat it after having not eaten any seafood or meat in a while.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background-color: #d24d33; color: white; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 70px; text-align: center;">9 </span><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 28px; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1;">Beethoven’s Soup</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="9a-egg-soup-use-this-480500480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88921" height="212" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/9a-egg-soup-use-this-480500480.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Ludwig van Beethoven is known for many things, but few know just how seriously he took his soup. According to the famous composer, only a housekeeper or cook with a pure heart could prepare a pure soup. Beethoven brooked no opposition, particular not from his long-suffering secretary Anton Schindler. If Beethoven thought a soup was bad and Schindler disagreed, Beethoven would send him an insulting note: “I do not value your judgment on the soup in the least, it is bad.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> One of Beethoven’s favorite dishes was a mushy bread soup, which he consumed every Thursday with 10 large eggs to be stirred into the soup. He inspected the eggs by holding them to the light and then cracking them open with his hand. Woe to the housekeeper if they weren’t all entirely fresh. Beethoven would call her in for a scolding. She only half-listened because she had to be ready to flee, as it was Beethoven’s custom to pelt her with the eggs as a punishment.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> According to Ignaz von Seyfried, an opera conductor during Beethoven’s time: “[Beethoven’s housekeeper] held herself in readiness to beat a quick retreat before, as was customary, the cannonade was about to begin, and the decapitate batteries would begin to play upon her back and pour out their yellow-white, sticky intestines over her in veritable lava streams.”</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">8</span> Gerald Ford’s Strange Lunch</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="8-cottage-cheese-ketchup" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88920" height="217" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/8-cottage-cheese-ketchup.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> It is a commonly cited piece of trivia that President Richard Nixon ate a daily lunch of cottage cheese covered in ketchup. After he was elected president, an article in the <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Washingtonian</span> quipped that elegant White House dinners had been replaced by cottage cheese and ketchup. He even had cottage cheese with pineapple slices for lunch on the day that he announced his resignation from the presidency.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Less commonly known is that President Gerald Ford was also an aficionado of the bizarre but strangely appealing lunch menu item, which he consumed every day while reading or working. An Air Force One staffer revealed in the book <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside the White House</span>:</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">President Ford had A-1 sauce and ketchup, mostly A-1 sauce, with the cottage cheese. We always had a vegetable garnish with spring onions, celery sticks, radishes. We always served ketchup and A-1 sauce with it. In most cases, he used A-1 sauced mixed in. [ . . . ] When we were going to land, he used mouthwash because of the onions.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Ford also liked a drink, although he could usually handle his alcohol. He once got drunk on martinis on Air Force One while returning from a meeting with the Soviet premier. That same staffer said, “We put him to bed. In the middle of the flight, he came out in his underwear and said ‘Where is the head?’ Normally, he knew where the head is. He could walk. He was slurring words. It was the one time he overindulged and was tipsy.”</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">7</span> Nicolas Cage’s Diet Of Dignified Animals</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="7-feature--fish-kiss-469672450" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88919" height="168" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/7-feature-fish-kiss-469672450.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Nicolas Cage is known for a storied career of both great and terrible performances. There are certainly enough strange things to say about him, but his diet may top them all. He only consumes animals that he judges as mating in a “dignified way.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Explaining the reason for his choice to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Sun</span>, Cage said, “I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales—sentient life—insects, reptiles. I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don’t eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> He may not eat those salacious swine, but he has consumed strange things in the name of art. The 1988 movie <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vampire’s Kiss</span> called for Cage to eat a live cockroach, which he did with some difficulty. “Every muscle in my body didn’t want to do it,” said Cage to <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Telegraph</span>. “But I did it anyway.”</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">6</span> Henry Ford’s Weeds</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="6-milkweed-90838035" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88918" height="199" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/6-milkweed-90838035.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Henry Ford was a picky eater who usually had nuts or raisins in his pocket. In his youth, he was largely uninterested in food and mostly moved it around on his plate to give the appearance of eating it. This changed when he started to perceive his body as a machine and his stomach as a boiler that he needed to give the right fuel.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The act of eating was more practical than sensual, and Ford experimented with wild weeds as a source of nutrition. His dietary experiments caused misery to his business associates, although they were better received by his friend George Washington Carver, who was of a like mind on that sort of thing.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Even though Ford received a salary of almost $1 million a year, he preferred a diet of “roadside greens,” which were essentially edible weeds that Ford gathered from his garden or outside. According to biographer Sidney Olson: “There is nothing quite like a dish of stewed burdock, followed by a sandwich of soybean bread filled with milkweeds, to set up a man for an afternoon’s work.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The weeds that Ford collected were often lightly boiled or stewed and then used in salads or sandwiches. However, the diet seemed to pay off because Henry Ford was rarely sick and lived to the ripe old age of 83.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div class="ga" id="div-gpt-ad-1366669464627-0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; display: inline-block; float: right; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> </div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">5</span> Evo Morales’s Gay Chicken</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="5-happy-chickens-538323101" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88917" height="186" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/5-happy-chickens-538323101.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Bolivian President Evo Morales caused controversy in 2001 when he claimed that eating hormone-injected chicken was a root cause of homosexuality. At the World People’s Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, he shocked the socially progressive audience with his views. “When we talk about chicken, it’s pumped full of female hormones,” he said, “and so when men eat this chicken, they stray from being men.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> He also linked the consumption of fowl with male baldness. Within a few hours, the impact of his comments had spread to the international media.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Morales’s government quickly went into spin doctor mode, insisting that the president had been referring only to genital abnormalities. In a public statement, the Foreign Relations Ministry explained, “[Morales] made no mention of sexuality. Rather, he said that eating chicken that has hormones changes our own bodies. This point of view has been confirmed by scientists, and even the European Union has prohibited the use of some hormones in food.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Many gay rights activists were unconvinced. The president of the Argentina Homosexual Community, Cesar Cigliutti, said, “It’s an absurdity to think that eating hormone-containing chicken can change the sexual orientation of a person. By following that reasoning, if we put male hormones in a chicken and we make a homosexual eat it he will transform into a heterosexual.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In a different vein, Morales also took shots at Coca-Cola. “If the plumber comes to your house and can’t get the job done with all his tools,” said Morales, “have him pour Coca-Cola down the clogged toilet, and problem solved.” This was received more favorably as many in Bolivia believe that the US soda company exploits Bolivia’s coca supplies. Also, a local company had just launched a rival drink called “Coca-Colla,” with “Colla” being a reference to the native Andean highland people.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Morales has a long-standing antipathy toward unhealthy American food, complaining at the UN in 2013 that “the fast food of the West is a great harm to humanity.” He accused fast food companies of causing cancer and conspiring to suppress the rise of quinoa as a healthy alternative source of nutrition.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">4</span> Howard Hughes’s Food Fetishes</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="4-fudge-milk-188001443" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88916" height="202" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/4-fudge-milk-188001443.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Movie mogul, industrialist, and businessman Howard Hughes suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was reflected in his eating habits. He gave a number of bizarre food preparation and serving orders to his servants, including wrapping spoon handles in tissue paper. They were then sealed with cellophane and wrapped in a second piece of tissue paper. He would only touch the covered handles because he was obsessively afraid of germs.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> His servants had to open cans of food in a specific way, too. First, the servant would hold the can under warm running water. Then he or she used a brush and special bars of soap to remove the label 5 centimeters (2 in) from the top of the can. Next, the can was soaked to remove any dust and germs. Then the bottom was cleaned in the same manner as the top. All the indentations of the can also had to be scrubbed with soap and rinsed. Throughout the process, the servant was not permitted to let go of the can.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Hughes suffered constipation because he refused to eat leafy vegetables. His meals were very uniform, and he enjoyed a regimented menu that he changed every few months. He usually ate a medium-rare butterfly steak with 12 peas of uniform size. If any of the peas were too large, Hughes would send them back to the kitchen to be replaced. He ate almost every meal alone. According to his chef, Hughes didn’t even eat Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with his wife.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> But Hughes liked fudge. When he became reclusive in his later years, he virtually subsisted on chocolate bars and milk. He isolated himself in a studio near his home, surrounded by empty milk bottles and containers which he used to relieve himself when nature called. This reclusive lifestyle took a toll on his health. When he finally died, people compared the state of his body to that of a Japanese prisoner of war.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">3</span> Hitler’s Flatulent Vegetarianism</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="3-cauliflower-artichoke-526357407" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88915" height="212" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/3-cauliflower-artichoke-526357407.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Many meat lovers enjoy telling their vegetarian friends that Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and vegetarians often vehemently disagree. The truth is more nuanced. Until the early 1930s, Hitler showed a penchant for certain meat products, particularly liver dumplings and sausages. He is said to have subscribed to Wagner’s theory that “[the] thirst [for flesh and blood] . . . can never be slaked, and fills its victims with a raging madness, not with courage.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Yet he did not completely turn against the consumption of meat until his niece and possible lover Geli Raubal committed suicide in 1931. After that, he refused to eat breakfast ham. “It is like eating a corpse!” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Hitler also turned away from meat because he believed it caused chronic constipation and flatulence. He ate his vegetables raw or pulped into a mush. Some of his favorite foods were oatmeal with linseed oil, cauliflower, cottage cheese, boiled apples, artichoke hearts, and asparagus tips in white sauce.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The high-fiber diet had precisely the opposite effect on his bowel drama. After Hitler consumed a particularly large plate of vegetables, his physician, Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that Hitler experienced “constipation and colossal flatulence . . . on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Of course, this is not only the fault of his vegetarian diet but also the ridiculous regimen of drugs and treatments administered by his doctor, which included chamomile enemas and a heavy dose of supplements. Some of those supplements were vitamins, testosterone, liver extracts, laxatives, sedatives, glucose, opiates, and poisonous strychnine tablets for gas.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The argument over Hitler’s vegetarianism is a bit of a red herring. He did occasionally indulge in animal products, but so do 70 percent of vegetarians. Even so, Hitler’s decision to become a vegetarian in no way refutes the moral arguments that vegetarians hold against meat eating.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">2</span> Mussolini’s Milk Addiction</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="2-milk-fruit-71261718" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88914" height="202" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2-milk-fruit-71261718.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Benito Mussolini also had digestive problems and weird eating habits, such as refusing to eat anything at banquets. He believed that eating was an activity to which one should devote one’s complete attention and that eating in the presence of others would make one “apt to eat wrongly.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> In 1925, he vomited blood while at his house in Rome and was forced to take several weeks off from public appearances. Rumors circulated that Mussolini might have to be replaced as the National Fascist Party leader. Doctors diagnosed him with a stomach ulcer and recommended a drastic change in diet after he refused to have surgery. His new diet was mainly composed of fruit and up to 3 liters (1 gal) of milk every day. This apparently didn’t help him because he suffered another ulcer in 1929.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> After the Allies invaded Italy and the Fascists retreated to a German satellite state called the Salo Republic, Mussolini sought the assistance of a physician named Dr. Zachariae. Shocked by his patient’s appearance, the doctor said, “I found myself before a ruin of a man who was evidently on the brink of the tomb.” Mussolini suffered from ulcers, anemia, constipation, insomnia, and low blood pressure. His skin was dry and inelastic, and his abdominal area around his liver was engorged.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Zachariae blamed Mussolini’s ridiculous milk diet and cut his milk intake to 0.25 liters (0.5 pt) each day for a week. Then he went cold turkey. The doctor began to treat Mussolini with small doses of vitamins and hormones, which had an immediate positive effect. After his liver returned to its normal size, Mussolini remarked, “I must tell you I feel liberated. I no longer feel pains in my stomach, and I don’t fear the night.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> The doctor insisted that Mussolini eat some light vegetables like carrots and potatoes, which he had once been unable to stomach, and to take his tea without milk. Although Mussolini preferred vegetarianism, the doctor insisted that his patient eat small amounts of boiled chicken and fish to increase his protein intake. Along with injections of vitamins B and C, the new diet caused his red blood cell count to rise and his health to improve. Despite Mussolini occasionally refusing to take food while the Italian people were starving, Zachariae later boasted that he had restored Mussolini to the health of a man of 40.</div> <h2 style="background-color: white; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; color: #343434; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <span style="background: rgb(210, 77, 51); border: 0px; color: white; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: TitilliumMedium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 52px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 70px; line-height: 70px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 70px;">1</span> Kim Jong Il’s Gastronomy</h2> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> <img alt="1-caviar-484879044" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88923" height="192" src="http://listverse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1-caviar-484879044.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline;" width="320" /></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Due to the testimony of Kim Jong Il’s former personal chef, Kenji Fujimoto, we know quite a bit about the eating habits of the former North Korean tyrant. While much of the country was starving, Kim indulged in expensive and elaborate food and drink. He had a wine cellar with over 10,000 bottles and a library with thousands of cookbooks.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Kim was committed to getting the best food and often sent Fujimoto on foreign excursions to pick up delicacies: Iran and Uzbekistan for caviar, France for cognac, Denmark for pork, western China for grapes, Thailand for papayas and mangoes, and Beijing for McDonald’s fast food. Former North Korean diplomats also sent back exotic delicacies, such as camel’s feet, from the countries in which they were stationed.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Kim established an institute of top doctors and scientists to design a diet to increase his longevity. This was a source of concern, as the 158-centimeter (5’2″) dictator’s former eating habits had brought him to a weight of almost 90 kilograms (200 lb). The doctors began to inspect every grain of his rice by hand to make sure it was perfectly shaped with no cracks or chips. Kim insisted that the rice be cooked over a wood fire using trees cut from Mount Paektu, a legendary mountain on the border with China.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> Fujimoto also revealed the dictator’s love of sushi. When Fujimoto sought to leave North Korea (after being banned from travel abroad), he did so with a cunning ruse. He showed the “Dear Leader” a new episode of the cooking show <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Iron Chef</span>, in which the secret ingredient was sea urchin roe, or <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">uni</span>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6d6d6d; float: left; font-family: TitilliumRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 598.203px;"> He casually mentioned that the best place to acquire the ingredient was from Rishiri Island off the coast of Hokkaido. Kim couldn’t resist sending the chef, who eluded his handlers at a fish market in Tokyo and disappeared into the crowd. Fujimoto didn’t return to North Korea until after Kim Jong Il’s death.</div> </div>

10 Eccentric Eating Habits Of Influential Figures

Humanity has always had an intimate relationship with food. So it should come as no surprise that some of the most notable, influential fi...

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