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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.
July 21, 2008
May 18, 2008
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
April 10, 2008
Sex? It's written all over your face
Alok Jha,
Wednesday April 9, 2008
The Guardian
(also, Hindustan Times, April 10, 2008)
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.
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.
September 15, 2006
Girls exercise better without boys
Chicago Sun-Times, Sep 2, 2005 by Nanci Hellmich
High school girls are more likely to exercise vigorously if they're in girls-only gym classes offering activities such as dancing, aerobics and brisk walking, according to a new study in September's American Journal of Public Health.
Public health officials are concerned by other research showing that girls become much less physically active during their teen years. Many don't exercise at all by the time they reach 18 or 19 -- yet children should be active at least an hour a day, according to government guidelines.
Russell Pate, professor of exercise science at the
During the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, girls and boys usually were separated in junior high and high school programs, but "after Title IX was put into place by the mid-70s, coed physical education became the more common approach," says Judy Young of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, a professional organization that includes teachers, researchers and administrators.
(Source: Chicago Sun Times)
Genetic way to tame Casanovas
Yerkes and CBN Researchers Make Promiscuous Animals Monogamous by Manipulating Genes Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and Atlanta's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) have found transferring a single gene, the vasopressin receptor, into the brain's reward center makes a promiscuous male meadow vole monogamous. This finding, which appears in the June 17 issue of Nature, may help better explain the neurobiology of romantic love as well as disorders of the ability to form social bonds, such as autism. In addition, the finding supports previous research linking social bond formation with drug addiction, also associated with the reward center of the brain.
In their study, Yerkes and CBN post-doctoral fellow Miranda M. Lim, PhD, and Yerkes researcher Larry J. Young, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at
The scientists used a harmless virus to transfer the vasopressin receptor gene from prairie voles into the ventral pallidum of meadow voles, which increased vasopressin receptors in the meadow vole to prairie-like levels. The researchers discovered, just like prairie voles, the formerly promiscuous meadow voles then displayed a strong preference for their current partners rather than new females. Young acknowledges many genes are likely involved in regulating lifelong pair bonds between humans. "Our study, however, provides evidence, in a comparatively simple animal model, that changes in the activity of a single gene profoundly can change a fundamental social behavior of animals within a species."
According to previous research, vasopressin receptors also may play a role in disorders of the ability to form social bonds, such as in autism. "It is intriguing," says Young, "to consider that individual differences in vasopressin receptors in humans might play a role in how differently people form relationships."
And, Lim adds, past research in humans has shown the same neural pathways involved in the formation of romantic relationships are involved in drug addiction. "The brain process of bonding with one's partner may be similar to becoming addicted to drugs: both activate reward circuits in the brain." The researchers' next step is to determine why there is extensive variability in behaviors among individuals within a species in order to better understand the evolution of social behavior.
The Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University is one of eight National Primate Research Centers funded by the National Institutes of ealth. The
The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, a National Science Foundation Science and
New Male Contraceptive
American Scientist
Shot Makes Monkeys Momentarily Infertile
An experimental vaccine given to male macaque monkeys temporarily sapped their fertility, pushing the potential for a new contraceptive for men a step closer to reality, according to new research written up in the journal Science. The novel treatment, dubbed “immunocontraception,” worked like this: Every three weeks, researchers injected nine monkeys with a protein called Eppin, which is involved in the production of sperm. In immunological response, seven of those monkeys created antibodies, which then attacked the Eppin and rendered the monkeys sterile. Five of the sterile monkeys regained their ability to conceive once the immunizations stopped.
Turning that success in monkeys into a new contraceptive for men, and improving its efficacy, will take lots of further research, time and money, said lead researcher Michael O’Rand, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To get there, O’Rand and his colleagues will need a clearer understanding of the mechanics at work. Their best guess: “We think the immunocontraception works by preventing the sperm from freeing itself from the seminal fluid to make its way to the uterus and oviducts to fertilize the egg,” O’Rand told Associated Press.
Right now, the list of male contraceptives stops after condoms and vasectomies. So a good amount of research has gone toward developing hormone-based contraceptives, and those actually may be closer to reality. Previous attempts at a vaccine that shackles sperm have gone a bit too far. But the effects here were reversible. Researchers believe that’s because Eppin, which serves as a coating for sperm, literally caps the process of sperm production. Because Eppin is so late to the male reproductive party, the antibodies don’t damage the male testes.
Susan Benoff, a former president of the Society for Male Reproduction, pointed out to USA Today that for immunocontraception to catch on someday, some psychological hurdles will have to be overcome. Not only might men be reluctant to give up their fertility for a time, said Benoff, but women would have to make a leap of faith. "If you are the woman," said Benoff, "you are the one who’s going to be pushing out the 8-pound bowling ball, so you really have to trust that he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do."
(Source: American Scientist)
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