Neuroscience

Sex Cues Ruin Men's Decisiveness

...or so says the headline at Cosmopolitan, er uh BBC News.

Brief summary below from Vaughan at Mind Hacks.

Lingerie sharpens the financial mind

According to recent news reports, the sight of lingerie or a sexy woman significantly impairs male decision making. Unfortunately, the details have got a little blurred in the re-telling from the original research paper - to the point where most reports flatly contradict the study's conclusions.

. . .

The best write-up of the study's details I've found is from Nature, who do the study justice and point out that the results actually contradict the idea that sexy images makes men less rational. In the study, they actually made men more rational.

—Vaughan.

And some great observations on all the hoopla from Dr Petra (sex and relationship psychologist):

A glimpse of panties and men can’t function

If I were to say to you men can’t be trusted in positions of power because they think with their dicks, you’d tell me I was being unfair.

Sure, there are stereotypes of men are preoccupied with sex, but to claim sex gets in the way of men’s abilities to manage even simple tasks suggests men are just brainless Neanderthals.

Yet in many of today’s papers that’s exactly the message being given. It’s based on research from a Belgian University that’s found men are so distracted by sexy women they can’t even focus on a simple lab task.

Instead of challenging the many flaws and assumptions behind the research, science writers and other reporters have run with a ‘this confirms what we’ve always known about men’ approach. It’s amazing in a media that’s increasingly quick to see men as the underdogs when it comes to a study that’s doing men down nobody seems to notice. In fact most journalists have been happy to perpetuate sexist stereotypes.

. . .

We often think of women as hormonally driven, but this research is doing the same thing for men. It’s arguing that given enough testosterone you’re irrational and impulsive. In other research we’re constantly told how men in powerful positions are often more likely to have higher testosterone levels. So if we’re to believe this research it’s really telling us is powerful men can’t be trusted to make any sensible decisions because you only need a petticoat to enter the room and men’ll be foaming at the mouth, forgetting all the important stuff.

If this is the case we’ve a great answer to ending all our wars or political problems. Simply get a ‘sexy woman’ to sashay through a board meeting and peace will be restored.

—Dr Petra

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