Attractive Women Make Men Temporarily Stupid 652
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by
kdawson
from the irreproducible-results dept.
from the irreproducible-results dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "The Telegraph reports that men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive. This leads to speculation that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks. Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived. Researchers recruited 40 male heterosexual students and had each one perform a standard memory test. The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test. The results showed that men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score."
Why after? (Score:4, Interesting)
But it goes both ways (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Easier explanation (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, yes, the blood moves. It's also often about a massive chemical reaction in your brain. I have a semi-rare condition where pheromones are very obvious to me. Some girls actually can make my head hurt, though I haven't had such reactions since I turned about 40.
Being able to sense the drug incoming, I was able to examine my reaction over the years. My heart raced, my chest tightened, and I longed for whichever girl I saw next. Often, I'd get hit with it from behind, before I saw any girl. I would be incapable of thinking of anything else but the girl who brought this to me. It takes a while for that to wash out of your system. A few hours later, I'd often think, "What the hell was I so enraptured about? She's nothing special."
Selecting for stupidity. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:There got to be an App for that... (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a cool Enfield trick that we learned last time we were in India; if you can't start your bike on a cold dewy morning, just take out the spark plug, pour a little bit of petrol into the chamber, put spark plug back in, and bang, it starts first kick
The guy who taught it to us used the same trick in the Israeli Defence Force to start tanks in the desert.
Re:There got to be an App for that... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, what was the car ad in that old Dudley Moore movie "Jaguar-for men who want handjobs from strange women" or something like that? Anyway I bet the reason this is is because we guys are too busy trying not to trip over our own feet and trying not look like a doofus to have any braincells left over for complex apps.
I know that when I first met my GF trying to talk her through a PC problem was an exercise in futility, as i just didn't have enough spare brain capacity to not trip over my own tongue PLUS keep the steps to fix the problem in my head PLUS translate tech speak into a language that she could understand. Now that we have been going out for awhile I don't have that problem anymore, except for her telling me occasionally "translation Mr Spock, because I don't think that last bit was actually English". Girls don't have that problem because they have more choices. Like that old joke "All girls are psychic because they know before the date even starts whether or not you are gonna get laid". The finer the girl, the more picky she can be, therefor the more laid back she can be when dealing with us.
Two trans-related anecdotes (Score:4, Interesting)
First, kudos for your good job on the terminology. Meanwhile, I know, I know, anecdote != data, but thought two things might be relevant.
First, the This American Life episode Testosterone [thisamericanlife.org]. Act Two is about an FTM man, who talks about his experiences on testosterone and how it's changed his views on behavior. Specifically, he describes how difficult he's found it to not ogle women even though he knows how inappropriate and potentially hurtful it can be. Obviously, it's only one trans man, so it's not exactly a scientific study. Likewise, I've heard from some trans men I know that their experiences don't match the This American Life story and they're not thrilled with it being mentioned as a representative experience. (As, I guess, I'm doing right now. Whoops.)
Second, as a trans woman who is attracted to women, I've had an interesting experience with perceiving other women since I've gone on hormones. (Right now there are a number of /.ers wondering whether they're supposed to be fantasizing about some hot lesbian action or disgusted because one of the women still has a penis...)
I've heard estrogen described as something which lowers filters, and I think that's a pretty accurate way of putting it. My emotions have been cranked up a notch since going on estrogen. Now, the expected/obvious part of that has been that I cry easier, but the opposite is true as well - I laugh easier. Relate that to sex and sexuality, and I've definitely felt like I've had just as much trouble keeping eye contact now as when I was flooded with testosterone when I was in my early teens.
I'd be curious as well to see a more broad study comparing responses of different populations: every combination of transsexual and cissexual (that is, not transsexual), straight, bi, and gay. Does a hormonally-female transsexual such as my self have different responses than a cissexual lesbian? Or a straight woman? Or a transsexual man? How do gender identity and sexuality (no to mention hormones) change the effects of focusing on a desirable sex partner?
-Trillian
Re:Easier explanation (Score:5, Interesting)
THOMAS (The Human Oxytocin-Mediated Attachment System) How to run a con [psychologytoday.com]
Schneir on Oxytocin [schneier.com]
Oxytocin [psychologytoday.com].
Now, you know that whole "chemistry" thing, where some people strike you as attractive and some just... don't? That's in part determined by the differences between your immune systems.
That works because if the genes that code for your major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are similar to the other person's, you'll tend to find them less attractive than otherwise, and vice-versa. Why mate with someone who's immune to the same stuff you are? Your offspring won't have any survival advantage. Instead, evolution has selected for creatures that mate with partners whose immune systems are incompatible. Either because both parents tend to be unlikely to be sick at the same time, ensuring the presence of at least one caregiver. Or because some the offspring of such pairings get a mix of genes that features the the best bits of both parents. (Offspring that get the worst of both parents tend not to survive, but that's a problem for individuals, not the species.)
Love is just a chemical reaction in your brain, anyway. It's not magical, or sacred, or even very special. It's your brain recognizing the opportunity to mate with someone who matches your particular template for an ideal partner (usually based on early experiences, parents, and other external factors), and shooting you up with natural drugs to make you feel like it's way more than it really is.
Re:Scientifically meaningless? (Score:2, Interesting)
Stay smart (Score:4, Interesting)
Guys who are able to maintain their cool and not lose themselves when around hot girls are the ones that can actually land them. If you can figure out how to do this you put yourself on top and demonstrate to women that you are something special, selecting yourself out from the crowd. I highly recommend it.
Stupifyin Jones (Score:3, Interesting)
See Stupifyin' Jones [youtube.com].
Re:Easier explanation (Score:3, Interesting)