Men just tuned to lust: Study

For a review of this research by our site, click here


20 Jul 2008, 2359 hrs IST,PTI

TOI

LONDON: Men are tuned to lust, irrespective of whether they found the women next to them attractive or not, a study has suggested.
Men have for long been seen as judging women on looks alone, but a study has now shown that the increase in male sex hormone level was not influenced by the perceived attractiveness of the women.

Human testosterone triggers an automatic reaction which has evolved in man when faced with a woman, to look for mating opportunities, and it does not matter if the woman is not attractive, the research reveals.

The research, published in the journal Hormones and Behaviour , suggested that the levels of their testosterone surged to the same extent whether they were talking to an attractive woman or someone they may not fancy at all.

The research involving 63 male students aged 21 to 25 found that their testosterone levels increased by an average of around 8% after just 5 minutes exposure to a stranger from the opposite sex and in some cases to women they not find particularly attractive.

"We found a testosterone increase after only five minutes of exposure to a woman. Our results suggest that the increase in testosterone levels that we found, may be an automatic male response that activates receptors in organs and the nervous system to prepare the human body for mate attraction," said Leander van der Meij, who led the study at the University of Groningen in Holland.

He said with the increase in testosterone levels males tend to display more dominant behaviour.

"They talk more with their hands, there is more eye contact, their posture is more upright, and they are more likely to tell stories designed to impress the woman. We know that women can be attracted by these kinds of things. All this, we believe, may be fuelled by the rise in testosterone that we have found," said der Meij.

Aggressive males showed greater rise in testosterone levels, an idea supported by research that men who exhibit more dominant-like behaviour tend to make more frequent successful contact with females.

In BriefRams Will Be Rams

washingtonpost.com

By Rams Will Be Rams

Sunday, July 4, 2004; Page BW07

Joan Roughgarden is a professor of biological sciences at Stanford Univeristy -- and a woman who was once a man. As such, she has a keen interest in sexual variation, a subject she addresses in Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (Univ. of California, $27.50). One of the many surprising scientific findings she reports is that exclusively straight male bighorn sheep -- those who do not engage in sex with other males -- are, from many points of view, "effeminate." "These males are identical in appearance to other males," she writes, "but behave quite differently. They differ from 'normal males' by living with the ewes rather than joining all-male groups. These males do not dominate females, are less aggressive overall, and adopt a crouched, female urination posture." Meanwhile, most male bighorn sheep are busy having intercourse with both females and other males. "This case," as Roughgarden adds, "turns the meanings of normal and aberrant upside down."

Toward the end of the book, Roughgarden engages in some Biblical interpretation, focusing on the passages that are "cited . . . against gay and lesbian people." She argues, for example, that Paul's criticism of homosexuality in his letter to the Romans can actually support a pro-gay reading. "The sense of Paul's letter," she writes, "is that if someone who has been worshipping God gives this up to follow other deities, their behavior will become unnatural for them -- they will start behaving out of character. . . . For someone who is primarily gay, the opposite is unnatural. For people who are gay to force themselves into heterosexual sex may be unnatural for them, and unfair to their partner, too."

-- Dennis Drabelle

Sex? It's written all over your face

Alok Jha,
Wednesday April 9, 2008
The Guardian
(also, Hindustan Times, April 10, 2008)

A computer generated image of the face on the right which is of someone who is more likely to be interested in a short-term sexual relationship whilst the one on the left is more likely to be interested in a long-term relationship. Photograph: Durham University/PA

A person's attitude to sex might be written all over their face, according to a study of attractiveness. Psychologists also found that, when it comes to selecting relationships, heterosexual men and women are looking for entirely opposite things.

"What was interesting was the strength of the preference among men for women who were interested in short-term sex and the strength of the preference of the women for men not interested in short-term sex," said Lynda Boothroyd of Durham University, who led the study.
Researchers surveyed 700 men and women in their early 20s, who were asked to look at photographs of the opposite sex and judge how attractive they were and what their attitudes to sex might be - such as whether they were interested in long or short-term relationships. The answers were compared with the real-life behaviour and attitudes of the people in the images.
The results, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, showed that men and women could generally judge who would be more interested in a short-term fling just by looking at their expression and features. In one study of 153 participants, 72% of people correctly identified the attitudes from photographs more than half of the time. "Men who said they were interested in short-term sex were seen as looking more masculine," said Boothroyd.