Nakedness and Nudity: A Darwinian Explanation for Looking and Showing Behavior

Abstract

The author has conducted investigations into the looking and showing behavior of animals and human beings. These investigations have been concerned particularly with the role of clothes and social nudism, body image or one's concept of his or her body, fantasy life, curiosity and dreams. In each investigation, strong differences between males and females have been noted. The most important determinant of extreme looking and showing behavior (called voyeurism and exhibitionism, in pathological cases) is the psychodynamics of the individual. Cultural conditions, however, seem to mediate the expression of this behavior. Thus, when the milieu is repressive, with overtones of severe sexual prohibitions, then pathological or rebellious exhibitionism and voyeurism appear to be manifested. The conclusion drawn from these investigations, based on consistent sexual differences and dominant male visual sexual curiosity, is that the explanation is biological in the Darwinian sense.