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> Pretty Women Scramble Men's Rationality, New Scientist article
Aon_Daonna 
Posted: 09-Dec-2003, 07:22 PM
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I found this and it proves what we all long since suspected biggrin.gif

QUOTE
Pretty women scramble men's ability to assess the future

 
00:01 10 December 03
 
NewScientist.com news service

 
Psychologists in Canada have finally proved what women have long suspected - men really are irrational enough to risk entire kingdoms to catch sight of a beautiful face.

Biologists have long known that animals prefer immediate rewards to greater ones in the future. This process, known as "discounting the future", is found in humans too and is fundamental to many economic models.

Resources have a value to individuals that changes through time. For example, immediately available cash is generally worth more than the same amount would be in the future. But greater amounts of money in the future would be worth waiting for under so-called 'rational' discounting.

But some people, such as drug addicts, show 'irrational' discounting. For example, preferring a small amount of heroin today rather than a greater amount in the future.

Margo Wilson and Martin Daly of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada decided to investigate discounting behaviour and see if it varied with sexual mood.

Male students, when shown pictures of pretty women, were more likely to opt for short-term economic gain than wait for a better reward in the future.


Sexual opportunity


Both male and female students at McMaster University were shown pictures of the opposite sex of varying attractiveness taken from the website 'Hot or Not'. The 209 students were then offered the chance to win a reward. They could either accept a cheque for between $15 and $35 tomorrow or one for $50-$75 at a variable point in the future.

Wilson and Daly found that male students shown the pictures of averagely attractive women showed exponential discounting of the future value of the reward. This indicated that they had made a rational decision. When male students were shown pictures of pretty women, they discounted the future value of the reward indicating that they had made an irrational decision.

Women, by contrast, made equally rational decisions whether they had been shown pictures of handsome men or those of average attractiveness.
 
"We have not elucidated the psychological mechanisms mediating our results," says Margo Wilson. "But we hypothesise that viewing pictures of pretty women was mildly arousing, activating neural mechanisms associated with cues of sexual opportunity."

Tommaso Pizzari, an evolutionary biologist at Leeds University, offers another possible explanation: "If there's the prospect of getting a very attractive partner it may pay a man to take more risks than if an average partner was available."

He told New Scientist: "If this is a response to sexual selection then you would expect men who are less attractive to take more risks. If you have many attractive potential partners then it does not pay to take risks. If you are less attractive, with few potential partners, then it pays to take risks."

Journal reference: Biology Letters (DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0134)

 
Danny Penman


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Herrerano 
Posted: 09-Dec-2003, 07:37 PM
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Well Mirri, you have just summed up my life story. That explains it all very neatly.

Leo cool.gif


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Aon_Daonna 
Posted: 09-Dec-2003, 07:46 PM
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oh Leo, you are getting predictable wink.gif I thought you would say something like that happy.gif
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andylucy 
Posted: 10-Dec-2003, 06:20 AM
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So, does the scrambling get worse the prettier the woman? Maybe there should be public service announcements warning men about this phenomenon. You know, like the drug ads:

This is your brain (shows an egg).

This is your brain looking at a beautiful woman (egg in frying pan being beaten with a whisk).

Any questions?
wink.gif


Just my tuppence. biggrin.gif

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Randy 
Posted: 10-Dec-2003, 08:16 AM
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Pam Anderson for president!!!
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Raven 
Posted: 10-Dec-2003, 09:07 AM
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WE use this phenomena where I work except it is sort of like the hearing voices phenomena.

If you put a woman with a very good voice on the phone to male music store owners they tend to buy all kinds of crazy stuff, but conversly they can also suffer a higher degree of buyers remorse resulting in a dispropotionate amount of customer service. We call these guys "chick buyers".

Put the right girl on the phone and I've seen guys spend themselves right into oblivion tongue.gif

On the other hand we never find women that are guy buyers. hmmm

I guess that explains why no one is saying Janet Reno for president laugh.gif


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maisky 
Posted: 11-Dec-2003, 03:19 PM
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This seems to be describing a well know phenomen. Men have two brains. They can only use one at a time. rolleyes.gif


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maisky 
Posted: 11-Dec-2003, 03:22 PM
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QUOTE (andylucy @ Dec 10 2003, 07:20 AM)
So, does the scrambling get worse the prettier the woman? Maybe there should be public service announcements warning men about this phenomenon. You know, like the drug ads:

This is your brain (shows an egg).

This is your brain looking at a beautiful woman (egg in frying pan being beaten with a whisk).

Any questions?
wink.gif


Just my tuppence. biggrin.gif

Andy

Good analogy. Works better in this case than the one it is used for in the tv commercials. thumbs_up.gif
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Aon_Daonna 
Posted: 11-Dec-2003, 03:38 PM
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there's a new science show over here called Brainiac and we all know the myth about ppl being less nervous at job interviews when they imagine their opposites as being naked...

well in the episode today they sat a young man into a job interwiew and when he came back after a pause they were all in their underwear... needless to say he was a young man and those 2 secretaries wore kinky stuff.. it totally scrambled him *grins* even the ugly old man couldn't save him biggrin.gif
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JaneyMae 
  Posted: 14-Dec-2003, 08:43 PM
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QUOTE (maisky @ Dec 11 2003, 03:19 PM)
This seems to be describing a well know phenomen. Men have two brains. They can only use one at a time. rolleyes.gif

Men usually only use the "one" brain rather than the rational one biggrin.gif If a pretty woman makes an appearance men fall all over themselves to make fools of themselves. It's great fun to watch, unless the man is my husband. The I fail to see the humor. Go figure. angel_not.gif


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maisky 
Posted: 15-Dec-2003, 04:56 AM
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QUOTE (JaneyMae @ Dec 14 2003, 09:43 PM)
Men usually only use the "one" brain rather than the rational one biggrin.gif If a pretty woman makes an appearance men fall all over themselves to make fools of themselves. It's great fun to watch, unless the man is my husband. The I fail to see the humor. Go figure. angel_not.gif

I see. That is when you smack him with a rolled up newspaper and tell him "Bad Boy!". biggrin.gif
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andylucy 
Posted: 15-Dec-2003, 05:00 AM
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QUOTE (maisky @ Dec 15 2003, 04:56 AM)
I see.  That is when you smack him with a rolled up newspaper and tell him "Bad Boy!". 

**Whimpering in corner, quivering**

Sorry, brought back the last time I paid attention to a young lady when my wife was in the room. biggrin.gif

Andy
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JaneyMae 
Posted: 15-Dec-2003, 09:57 AM
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I love the rolled up newspaper part and of course, "bad boy" slides off the tongue so very nicely. jawdrop.gif lol.gif
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myriad 
Posted: 15-Dec-2003, 10:26 AM
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*evil laugh... ironic.... lol .... and to think it is my husband who buys the newspapers he will be beaten with I ever catch him behaving in such a way. He is purchasing my weapon every Sunday.... and he hasn't a clue. I love it... thanks for the great idea.
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JaneyMae 
Posted: 15-Dec-2003, 10:38 AM
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myriad, you are indeed evil. A kindred spirit!!!!
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