Gender befuddles

When. a pretty gal is talking with a regular guy, what does he hear? Not a lot, I hear you say, and as a regular sort of guy I've had the experience. You pay close attention and try to listen hard, but it's like there's a loudspeaker going gagagaga or your ears turn off as your eyes work overtime. There's nothing naughty in it. I'm a happily married man but the programming is still there.

And now some neat research has proved I'm not alone. Johan Karremans and colleagues asked 40 male students to do a memory task before and after talking with male and female researchers. For those who chatted with a male researcher there was no degradation in performance. The same was not true about chatting with female researchers, where the more attractive the woman, the greater eas the cognitive impairment. And already being in a relationship had no effect - the men were just as impaired. The researchers tested female students too, but chatting with men had no impact on their performance.

No surprises maybe, but this does give proof to the use of attractive women everywhere from car sales to club hosting. If men's minds can be so easily befuddled, then no wonder sex sells.

Reference:
Karremans, J., Verwijmeren, T., Pronk, T., & Reitsma, M. (2009). Interacting with women can impair men?s cognitive functioning. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45 (4), 1041-1044

Quick links

The ChangingMinds Blog!