Researchers from the University of Chicago, taking a break from doing things like finding a cure for cancer or chronic chapped lips, decided to study the difference between love and lust. They found out incredible things, like where on your body your date looks at you could indicate whether he is feeling love or lust.
The study found that eye patterns concentrate on a stranger’s face if the viewer sees that person as a potential partner in romantic love, but the viewer gazes more at the other person’s body if he or she is feeling sexual desire. That automatic judgment can occur in as little as half a second, producing different gaze patterns.
This news, apparently, was startling only to the researchers, as women have known this ever since Eve admonished Adam to “look at the face, buddy. I might be naked, but if you stare at my snatch one more time, I’m going to throw this apple at your nuts.”
Previous research by one of the scientists who has nothing better to do has shown that different networks of brain regions are activated by love or by sexual desire. He discovered that the brain region containing lust also contains a desire for frozen prepared food, Rogaine, and whatever is sold most sex shops. The brain region containing love also contains the desire to parent, to maintain a tidy home, and to find favorable mortgage interest rates.
As an alert, discerning reader who has chosen to read this post instead of making yourself knowledgeable about the scary goings on between Israel and Hamas, you may be wondering just how all of this research relates to anything that anyone could possibly use. Here, then, is your answer:
“By identifying eye patterns that are specific to love-related stimuli, the study may contribute to the development of a biomarker that differentiates feelings of romantic love versus sexual desire,” said one of the researchers. “An eye-tracking paradigm may eventually offer a new avenue of diagnosis in clinicians’ daily practice or for routine clinical exams in psychiatry and/or couple therapy.”
There it is, then. Had Eve had the benefit of all of this research, she could have then told Adam, “Your biomarker indicates a feeling of sexual desire, as opposed to romantic love on your part, when you glance in my direction. I might be naked, but If you stare at my snatch one more time, I’m going to throw this apple at your nuts.”
It makes all the difference in the world.
Life in the Boomer Lane 
The Last Furlong
July 23, 2014
Ha ha – lovely post to read whilst the news runs in the background of Palestine and MH 17. I preferred your post! Thank you.
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
I always like to compete with world-shattering events and win.
An Ordinary Man (the novel)
July 23, 2014
i try to split my stares between upstairs/downstairs; in the final analysis, it IS one of the big reasons i love her.
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
And I love that comment.
katecrimmins
July 23, 2014
How can I get a job working on one of these studies? I could have given them the conclusion before they did whatever research they did.
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
I know. I feel that way about so much research. I charge a lot less than whatever it is costing others to pay. Plus, if the results are bizarre, I can turn it into a comedy routine.
Gayane
July 23, 2014
they get grants for this? don’t they read Cosmopolitan?
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Or even just ask the first random woman who walks by.
mizipswich
July 23, 2014
Made me laugh! The stupidity of the science of common sense. Just to throw a wrinkle into the brow, sometimes I stare not because of lust but because of fascination. You know – “Yours is so wierd looking, boyfriend!”
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Ooh, I think I had a lot of that from guys when I was in jr high.
praw27
July 23, 2014
Haven’t laughed this much in a while! Needed a break from all the tragedy in the world. Thanks, you always come through!
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
I exist to serve.
btg5885
July 23, 2014
Too funny. Have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink?” He has a chapter on those matchmaking parties, where you wander from prospective partner to the next one to talk for a few minutes. He said a woman (or man’s) gut instinct can decipher in close to an instant whether there is an attraction. He did not, by the way, go into where a man’s eyes were looking. That might be influential in the woman’s decision-making. What is the old line that a woman might say, “I am up here.”
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
I ran a speed dating company for several years. Yes, it doesn’t take long.
Anne Whitaker
July 23, 2014
Proof that the world must be running out of research topics…
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Laughing.
Valentine Logar
July 23, 2014
Well, I might love him but I still want to know what I am falling into
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Agreed.
christineplouvier
July 23, 2014
How about we start a group for lobbying university Institutional Review Boards? “Writers for Humane Romance Research: Supporting Novelists is More Ethical, and Gets Studies Done in Record Time.”
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Elyse
July 23, 2014
Eve should have just thrown the apple at his nuts. The world would be much better off with Adam’s attention elsewhere.
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Alas, we are still trying to direct Adam’s attention to what matters, right?
Sabeena Ahmed Khan
July 24, 2014
Reblogged this on Sabeena Ahmed Khan and commented:
love versus sexual desire
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
Thanks for the reblog, Sabeena!
Sabeena Ahmed Khan
July 28, 2014
🙂
Elan Mudrow
July 24, 2014
I get into trouble no matter which way my eyeballs move. I wonder what monks look at?
Life in the Boomer Lane
July 25, 2014
You could do an entire post about that. Those robes and hoods cover a multitude of sins.
brie993
August 6, 2014
Reblogged this on brie993.
brie993
August 6, 2014
I love the sense of humor and the sarcasm!! Very nice read after a long day.
benzeknees
September 11, 2014
Maybe if this researchers did a bit more research they could figure out how people can look at others to make them feel more protective than war-like. Wouldn’t that be amazing? If we could figure out how to diffuse people’s warlike feelings!