 We all know that true love is a wonderful thing, it's deep and meaningful and makes us feel immensely incredible. But sometimes our hearts and other parts of us want something similar but in a fraction of the time. That's where lust comes in handy. You've heard of the elusive love at first sight. It's rare and often confused with the much more common lust at first sight. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's taken a glance at a stranger walking down the street and fallen immediately in lust with them. Not wanting to have two kids in a minivan in a suburb in Massachusetts, just having a steamy fling with them. It's completely natural to have these feelings but what happens when lust becomes a problem? Has your intense physical attraction to someone ever blinded you from rationality and blatant common sense? Lust is a very intense and sudden attraction to someone from a purely physical angle. As Robin Williams brilliantly put it, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis and only enough blood to run one at a time. But this is not only an issue for men, although women have a better time hiding it, lust runs wild in their veins at times and will sometimes make them give their phone number to the hot waiter after a few too many drinks. Some of these encounters with lust taking the wheel of our actions can be dangerous. It has led many to go home with someone after a first date, although in your totally right lust-free mind you would be against it with concerns like, do you even really know this person? What if it isn't safe, how do you know this person is a homicidal serial killer who just happens to look charming over a plate of a spaghetti in the candlelight of a restaurant? In most situations you would think better than to go home with this person, but if you find them so physically irresistible that you're just dying to be close to them, then you'll do whatever your heart and lower region tells you to do, ignoring your brain's warnings. According to the psychologist Mary C. Lamia, lust often has the effect of minimizing the reasoning capacity in humans. People who are in the throes of lust may lose their sensibilities, since lust seems unable to recognize the reality of a situation or motivates one to neglect it. Lust in these moments can be seen as sort of the devil on your shoulder, encouraging you to take risks that are just a little too far and getting just a little too close to the ledge. It's that one friend who keeps handing you shot after shot after shot even though both of you know you have a big presentation to give next morning. Lamia further explains how lust is an octane for the relentless pursuit of another person in spite of intellectual reason and sometimes regardless of emotional barriers such as guilt or shame. Lust is seen as a famished stomach or a mosquito bite, something we need to instantly suppress or resist because once it gets out of hand it's hard to stop. In one study, Canadian researchers from McMaster University showed men pictures of attractive and not so attractive women. These men were then informed that they would be given $15 or $75 for free. They catch, the $15 would be given to them the next day, while the $75 would be given to them a few days afterwards. Men who saw the pictures of the prettier women chose the $15 instead of the $75. Overall, the study proves that lust causes us to think in the now and forget what long term thinking is. Several people make urgent decisions in which they are willing to ignore actions that seem smarter. Researchers concluded that lust launches up a man's limbic system while his prefrontal cortex heads south, leaving the judgment area of the brain unattended. The fact that lust and sexual desire makes us more adventurous and more likely to act on a whim is used and abused by many money making corporations around the world. Las Vegas isn't called the city of sin for no reason. It's full of lustful people wanting to fulfill all of their fantasies for a short time, not thinking of the consequences. Hotel owners purposely hire sexy people, knowing that it will trigger that part of the guest's brains to go more crazy and spend a lot more than they rationally would. It's true that sex sells, tipping a stripper more so that they might give you a little something extra. Drinking more drinks so you can keep flirting with the hot bartender and gambling until dawn to impress the ladies are very common in these toxic environments. Now, knowing this, do you believe that you could resist the desire of lust, or would you find yourself giving in to the temptation and leaving all reason behind? Don't worry, it is possible to resist, but one must have the priorities in order, and their genitals safely tucked away, and we must not forget those who do not have strong sexual desire as in asexuals are all but immune to this effect. Do you find yourself tempted by lust? Leave a comment below! Don't forget to subscribe to Psych2Go and check out our website!