Sex can be messy, but most people don't seem to mind too much as a result of sexual arousal that actually dampens humans' natural disgust response, a new study has suggested
The authors of the study, led by Charmaine Borg of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, asked female participants to complete various disgusting-seeming actions, like drinking from a cup with an insect in it or wiping their hands with a used tissue.
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However, the participants were not aware of it, but the insect was made of plastic and the tissue was coloured with ink to make it appear used.
The researchers found that sexually aroused subjects responded to the tasks with less disgust than subjects who were not sexually aroused, suggesting that the state of arousal has some effect on women’s disgust response.