Venus of Willendorf, statue exaggerating body and breast stimuli. The Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11

A superstimulus or superreleaser is an exaggerated version of a stimulus to which there is an existing response tendency, or any stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus that normally releases it. Stimulation is the action of various agents ( stimuli) on Muscles Nerves or a sensory end organ by which activity is evoked especially the nervous

The concept is derived from ethology. Ethology ( from Greek ἦθος ethos, "character" and λόγος logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of Animal Konrad Lorenz observed that birds would select for brooding eggs that resembled those of their own species but were larger. Konrad Zacharias Lorenz ( November 7, 1903 in Vienna &ndash February 27, 1989 in Vienna) was an Austrian Niko Tinbergen, following his extensive analysis of the stimulus features that elicited food-begging in the chick of the Herring Gull, constructed an artificial superstimulus consisting of a red knitting needle with three white bands painted round it; this elicited a stronger response than an accurate three-dimensional model of the parent's head (white) and bill (yellow with a red spot). Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen ( April 15, 1907 &ndash December 21, 1988) was a Dutch ethologist and Ornithologist The Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, is a large Gull (up to 26 inches or 66 cm long and is the most abundant and best known of all gulls along the shores of

Lorenz and Tinbergen accounted for the superreleaser effect in terms of the concept of the innate releasing mechanism; however this concept is no longer widely used. In Ethology, a fixed action pattern ( FAP) is an Instinctive Behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion The core observation that simple features of stimuli may be sufficient to trigger a complex response remains valid, however.

It is sometimes argued that phenomena such as sexual fetishes and the taste for junk food can be partially explained as examples of superstimulation. Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the Sexual attraction to materials and objects not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature Junk food is a broad term that is used to describe a variety of Food products from Sweets that contain little to no Nutritional value to products used in Modern artefacts may activate instinctive responses which evolved in a world without shiny fabrics or double cheeseburgers, where shiny skin was a sign of health in a prospective mate, and fat was a vital nutrient. Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living Organism toward a particular Behavior.

An episode of the PBS science show NOVA showed an Australian beetle species whose males were sexually attracted to large and orange females—the larger and oranger the better. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the This became a problem when the males started to attempt to mate with certain beer bottles that were just the right color. The males were more attracted to the bottles than actual females.