A woman gives birth, experiencing a tremendous amount of pain, but she is willing to go through it again, to have more than one child. Some hormone prevents her from "strongly" remembering what it was like.
A person romantically pursues another person and is rejected, experiencing a lot of pain, shame, and unhappiness in the rejection. But he or she quickly pursues another, risking yet another similar incident. Why?
I hypothesize these two scenarios are biochemically similar. The feelings of pain and pleasure, ultimately affecting actions in the most important pursuit of mating are likely powerfully fine-tuned and controlled as a result of evolution.
One sinister implication is that no amount of disincentive, even having experienced punishment once, can deter sexual assault. It would be like artificially ramping up the pain of giving birth.
Inspired by Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. Why does Falstaff keep trying despite the very painful rejections?
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