Why we are obsessed with what is forbidden

A new study explains why humans are obsessed with forbidden pleasures, comparing it to Adam and Eve's fixation on the apple in paradise.

The study, due to be published in the journal Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, says that people pay more attention when something is socially forbidden, and that this extra attention works at a different level: we care about a forbidden thing as intensely as we care about our own possessions.

The study also showed that our interest changes when others are denied the same thing. Interest drops sharply when the ban applies to the whole group.

This helps explain why diets followed as a group succeed much more often than diets followed alone. It may also help parents understand how to raise children and give them a clearer idea of personal property and of what is off limits.

Participants looked at pictures of objects they were told either belonged to them, were forbidden to them alone, or were forbidden to the whole group. Meanwhile the scientists measured their brain activity with electrical recordings (EEG) and tested their memory of the objects.