Neuroscience
After looking at sexually arousing images, men, but not women, become more impatient for financial rewards and more willing to take financial risks. Now a study has shown that women too show these changes to their decision making if they touch "sexually laden stimuli" - in this case men's boxer shorts!
Across three studies, Anouk Festjens and her colleagues led over a hundred female undergrads to believe they were taking part in customer research for a clothing manufacturer. The women handled a pair of men's boxer shorts or a t-shirt and rated it on various factors such as the quality of the fabrics. After touching the clothing they answered financial or other questions, the precise format varying from study to study.
Handling boxer shorts, but not a t-shirt, increased the women's* preference for immediate financial reward - that is, they said they'd have to be offered more money in a week or a month's time to entice them to forsake the immediate offer of €15. Stated differently, women who touched a t-shirt perceived €15 in a month's time as being worth around €12.50, whereas women who touched the boxer shorts perceived €15 in a month's time as being worth around €10.50 - a statistically significant difference.
In another study, the women said whether they'd be willing to play various gambles that involved risking starting amounts of money or chocolate for the prospect of winning more money or chocolate. Women who'd first handled boxer shorts were willing to play riskier gambles than those who handled a t-shirt.
A final study involved heterosexual women and men, and this time there were three conditions - handling boxer shorts (or a bra in the men's case); looking at boxer shorts (or a bra) through plexi-glass; or handling a t-shirt. After this, the participants said how much they'd be willing to pay for a variety of rewarding (e.g. wine) or neutral (e.g. a keyboard) products. The key finding here was that women who handled boxer shorts were willing to pay more for rewarding products than those who merely looked at the shorts, or touched the t-shirt. Men, by contrast, were willing to pay more for both types of product after either looking at or touching a bra, compared with touching a t-shirt.
"We contribute to the literature by showing that the assumption that women do not respond to sexual cues when making economic decisions is incorrect," the researchers concluded.
What explains these effects on behaviour? Festjens and her colleagues believe that the touch of men's boxer shorts has sexual connotations that triggers the general reward circuitry in the women's brains - hence their subsequent risk-taking and willingness to pay more for other rewards. For men, a similar, yet broader, process is triggered by the sight or touch of stimuli with sexual connotations. "We call upon further research to investigate the gender-specific sensitivity to sexual cues and their effects," the researchers said.
_________________________________
Anouk Festjens, Sabrina Bruyneel, and Siegfried Dewitte (2013). What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards. Journal of Consumer Psychology DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2013.10.001
*The sexual orientation of the women in the first two studies was not specified.
--Further reading--
How hunger affects our financial risk taking
Threaten a man's masculinity and he becomes a short-sighted risk taker
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Sexual Arousal Has A Similar Effect On Men's And Women's Risk-taking
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- The Power Of A Light Touch On The Arm
A good-looking man approached 120 women in a night club over a period of three weeks, and asked them to dance. It was in the name of science – the man was an assistant to the psychologist Nicolas Guegen. Remarkably, of the 60 women who he touched lightly...
- …and How Testosterone Can Fuel Entrepreneurship
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- Staplers, Snakes, And Sex
Do sexy pictures make men more likely to buy expensive sports cars? Possibly, according to Science Daily: Irrelevant Image Of Attractive Woman Can Make A Man More Willing To Take Big Financial Risks ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2008) — Attractive women plus...
Neuroscience
Women take bigger financial risks after touching men's underwear
Across three studies, Anouk Festjens and her colleagues led over a hundred female undergrads to believe they were taking part in customer research for a clothing manufacturer. The women handled a pair of men's boxer shorts or a t-shirt and rated it on various factors such as the quality of the fabrics. After touching the clothing they answered financial or other questions, the precise format varying from study to study.
Handling boxer shorts, but not a t-shirt, increased the women's* preference for immediate financial reward - that is, they said they'd have to be offered more money in a week or a month's time to entice them to forsake the immediate offer of €15. Stated differently, women who touched a t-shirt perceived €15 in a month's time as being worth around €12.50, whereas women who touched the boxer shorts perceived €15 in a month's time as being worth around €10.50 - a statistically significant difference.
In another study, the women said whether they'd be willing to play various gambles that involved risking starting amounts of money or chocolate for the prospect of winning more money or chocolate. Women who'd first handled boxer shorts were willing to play riskier gambles than those who handled a t-shirt.
A final study involved heterosexual women and men, and this time there were three conditions - handling boxer shorts (or a bra in the men's case); looking at boxer shorts (or a bra) through plexi-glass; or handling a t-shirt. After this, the participants said how much they'd be willing to pay for a variety of rewarding (e.g. wine) or neutral (e.g. a keyboard) products. The key finding here was that women who handled boxer shorts were willing to pay more for rewarding products than those who merely looked at the shorts, or touched the t-shirt. Men, by contrast, were willing to pay more for both types of product after either looking at or touching a bra, compared with touching a t-shirt.
"We contribute to the literature by showing that the assumption that women do not respond to sexual cues when making economic decisions is incorrect," the researchers concluded.
What explains these effects on behaviour? Festjens and her colleagues believe that the touch of men's boxer shorts has sexual connotations that triggers the general reward circuitry in the women's brains - hence their subsequent risk-taking and willingness to pay more for other rewards. For men, a similar, yet broader, process is triggered by the sight or touch of stimuli with sexual connotations. "We call upon further research to investigate the gender-specific sensitivity to sexual cues and their effects," the researchers said.
_________________________________
Anouk Festjens, Sabrina Bruyneel, and Siegfried Dewitte (2013). What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards. Journal of Consumer Psychology DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2013.10.001
*The sexual orientation of the women in the first two studies was not specified.
--Further reading--
How hunger affects our financial risk taking
Threaten a man's masculinity and he becomes a short-sighted risk taker
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Sexual Arousal Has A Similar Effect On Men's And Women's Risk-taking
When it comes to condom use among heterosexual couples, there's evidence that women are often expected to be the sensible ones, in terms of raising and enforcing the issue. A new study published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour suggests this isn't...
- The Digest Guide To ... Human Attraction
10 years of the Research DigestDress like the person you want to date. If there's someone in your class or workplace who you'd like to get to know better, try making yourself resemble them in some way. Obviously you don't want to take this...
- The Power Of A Light Touch On The Arm
A good-looking man approached 120 women in a night club over a period of three weeks, and asked them to dance. It was in the name of science – the man was an assistant to the psychologist Nicolas Guegen. Remarkably, of the 60 women who he touched lightly...
- …and How Testosterone Can Fuel Entrepreneurship
I'm not sure what this says about the finalists of The Apprentice but a new study argues that, among men at least, entrepreneurs have more testosterone than usual. Using saliva swabs, Roderick White and colleagues found 31 male business students who’d...
- Staplers, Snakes, And Sex
Do sexy pictures make men more likely to buy expensive sports cars? Possibly, according to Science Daily: Irrelevant Image Of Attractive Woman Can Make A Man More Willing To Take Big Financial Risks ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2008) — Attractive women plus...