"Men become hapless show offs at the sight of a beautiful women, scientists have proved. "
Researchers found they take greater risks in order to impress and as a result become more accident prone.
They show that just looking at an attractive woman makes them more likely to indulge in "physical risk-taking" which ends in embarrassing failure or even injury.
The change in behaviour is triggered by a surge in the male hormone testosterone which makes men "throw caution to the wind", according to psychologists at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.They made the finding after a studying young male skateboarders. In tests, the team used both male and female observers to watch how the men performed their manoeuvres at a local park. Results revealed that they "took more risks when they were observed by an attractive female than when they were observed by a male.
I love Kate, here's my wooing:
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.
I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat 400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But I have not yet met Kate.
The only thing left is to go to Delisle, achieve eye contact, holler: "Watch this, babe!" and..... well, I was going to say jump off something high, but it's the prairies, so maybe not. But Russian Roulette always impresses the ladies.
This study raises some concerns about research ethics. If the scientists arrange to have more beautiful women watching the skateboarders, who as a result of such observation attempt more "grinds" or "ollies" or "fifty-fifties", or whatever it is shiftless, multiply-pierced slackabouts call their manoeuvres, and therefore end up leaving a higher percentage of epidermis on the asphalt, then does this not constitute human experimentation resulting in higher levels of harm than might have occurred if the researchers had just left well enough alone?
It's not that I'm all that concerned about skateboarders losing teeth, or that I don't appreciate the entertainment value in seeing idiots hurt themselves (I watch Jackass precisely because such behaviour tends to improve the gene pool); it's just that, technically, even skateboarders are still homo sapiens, and there are laws about this sort of thing.
After all, as Kate points out, it's not as though we were desperately in need of empirical confirmation of the thesis that "guys do dumb stuff to impress hot chicks".
It's not just guys. I've seen some women turn green when a superior specimen walks in the room.
What next, a campaign to ban beautiful women?
Health and safety hazard, maybe?
Having absorbed a bit of psych along the way....
I find observing human (and animal behaviour) at times interesting.
On the chick thing, despite hormonal urges, I have developed a defense reflex.....with often amusing results.
I have observed that babes generally assume/expect a positive response....and predictably throw a hissy fit when it does not manifest.
Wearing a smile, generally gives good results among Caucasian Males but can invite aggession from the usual opportunists/bullies.....
A certain racial group, is uncomfortable with this and appear to interpret this as mental instability----and are intimidated....
"Stay away from me you crazy Mother******r."
Care must be taken as the "fight or fly" instinct can kick in PDQ.
usually, they can be routed with......
"hey, com'ere, I wanna look at yer knife."
Sex and violence seem to define us.....
But, male/female dynamics are really entertaining.......
It took a university study to figure this out? I wonder how the grant application was tied to global warming?
So Black Mamba, do you need someone to hold your beer?
Can we come up with a prize for Piper Paul? Maybe one of Kate's dog prints? Seriously, that was epic.
Finally! Some junk science we can live with. Unfortunately you just know these findings will be used against us.
Piper - that was awesome!
That cries to go viral...
Piper Paul's post was very good but it was originally written by Hugh Gallagher of Von Von Von fame.
It's always a pleasure to read though.
This is how psychology professors get tenure so they can spend more time with social activism.
It's also how they get government grants for more useless research.
Mal is a jerk for pointing out that I didn't write it myself. Sheesh, it seems you can't steal *anything* off the internet and claim it as your own anymore.
:)
Sorry, Paul, but she would have found out. She's funny that way.
(See what I did there?)
it aint our fault.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587230,00.html?sPage=fnc/health/men
So can we conclude that if there is a testosterone fuelded brawl in a bar, it could be quelled by sending a SWAT team of unpretty women--teams of ladies with batwing arms, dewlaps, craggy cleavages and excess avoir-du-pois?
Piper Paul, wherever it did come from. Thank you. That made my day.
Y'all ever notice how girl motorcyclists don't practice doing wheelies for hours? And hours and hours and hours...
... and then uncork said hard earned skill Saturday night in Yorkville?
You know, its hard to wheelie an RZ500 from a standing start at Belair, go through first and second and still get the front end down in time to stop at Bay Street because the light changed. Good thing I practiced eh? :)
How many young men have been killed by the miniskirt? When will the carnage end?!!!
I'm so bloody old I forgot
what this stuffs about. maybe if I keep reading...
Related theme, have y'all ever noticed how hot chicks don't mind watching the dumb guy do the wheelie, but their tune changes when -they- are on the back? "Nononono EEEEEEEEE!"
That never gets old. BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!
whereas MY ploy to attract women is to be uncommonly modest and humble in my speech and actions...my character and moral fibre are as a Pharos to the discerning distaff intellect....my very pheremones exude virtue and integrity....steadfastness and fidelity...i indulge women the physical act of love much as Casals stroked his cello...with a slow measured metronome like rhythm ....contrapuntaly accentuated with glissandos of grace notes that fall as petals from a wild rose...
Guilty.
There is a cash cow waiting for this "news".
Oh, GREAT! Now all the rates for Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation are about to go up big time.
"Excuse me, Sir! But I see that you have a beautiful woman working in your business. We are going to have to increase your premiums as everytime she walks by the probability of your male employees engaging in dangerous and unsafe business practices doubles.
You have two options, an increase of 4% on your premiums or hire the fat, ugly chick!"
Next study: alcohol, does it encourage men to perform stupid male-tricks and thereby cause self harm EVEN if the woman observing isn't as beautiful? ie: does alcohol make up for lack of observer beauty?
How about if the woman observing is your wife (but is still beautiful)?
Because that's never happened.
This is a terribly sexist study of the obvious. Perhaps it is just the prelude to receiving a hugely expensive grant to study the hormonal spikes of the drop dead lookers doing the "observing" when disaster, near disaster, and faultless performances take place by the assorted skateboarders.
It could take an entire career to wade through all the spin offs.
Got you beat I think Phantom.
I once went off a jump on my dirtbike with the object of my affections on the back.........
Amazingly enough I landed it and she was still somewhat less than happy.
:)
Phantom
one of the best wheeeeeleee artists I'v ever observed was a very good lookin young lady on a blue 600 cowee, tho she didn't want to try that stunt on my bigger bike :-))))
Hmmmm....this study is minimizing the most pertinent fact. It's the young part that is the most significant factor. Groups of young men do not require beautiful women to justify reckless behavior - think fraternity, death by dare etc. In fact, young men are as likely to become bumbling, bashful idiots as fearless showman in the presence of a pretty girl.
These dangerous activities by boys and men would be minimized if all women wear their Burkas like they are supposed to.
LOL, Abe!
It is obvious from the first quoted word that the article is not correct. In order for the article to be possibly correct, it would have to say some men. It's the same as if there was an article that said something to the effect that "Women lose all sense of reason when they see an On Sale sign". That too could not possibly be correct unless it said some women.
Burka Burka Burka
Oi Oi Oi
Marilyn Monroe once told an interviewer that, in the presence of herself and Joe DiMaggio, men would almost invariably start trying to impress... Joe. She said she wasn't used to being ignored, but there it was. This indicates that men also behave like testosterone-addled idiots* to get the admiration of men they admire, albeit for slightly different reasons.
*I mean that in a very nice way.
the bear - get your own beer.
black mamba - I guess you've never heard the joke. "What's the last words heard out of a Saskatchewan farm boy..."
"Hold my beer, watch this". LOL
Heh.
It is in the jeans...or wait...maybe,is it genes? Where is the thesaurus when you need it?
Another peculiar male behavior, beyond hero worship and being reckless to get laid, is the no eye contact rule. For instance, in very masculine subcultures guys do not look directly at other men's dates. There may be a brief side glance acknowledgment at best. I first noticed this oddity at a biker bar I used to go to. Anyway, the bottom line is that the researchers need to get out more.
O/T. I believe that Delisle has a water tower so the Big Jump Idea still has hope. Please advise of time and date for the benefit of spectators.
And...errrr....I also meant idiots in a very nice way.
"If men knew all that women think, they'd be twenty times more daring."
-- Alphonse Karr
GYM, there are exceptions to every rule. I hope you married that wheelie goddess (or at least tried), such women are rare.
AtlanticJim, jumping with attractive female passenger is a great one. My close approach was a -two- wheel drift at about 70mph (thats miles per hour) through an up-hill corner. Bayview ramp from the Don Valley up to Bloor Street if that means anything to you, corner is posted 40kph I believe.
It was a bruising experience though, she bruised me when we got to the stoplight. ~:D
Older gentlemen just sigh!
So can I get some kind of government pension since my job requires me to look beautiful? If the government is willing to make sweeping changes based on false global warming science, will they use this real-yet-obvious science to banish all models, dancers and showgirls? Or do I have to purchase beauty credits every time I wear something that isn't a burka?
How true, LCB: It's the young part that is the most significant factor. Groups of young men do not require beautiful women to justify reckless behavior.
Across the country, during BCATP days, young pilot trainees killed themselves in airplane crashes trying to impress young ladies.
Over this small community, one Scottish lad who had just received his wings took an outdated Fairey Battle and did low-level aerobatics to impress a young lady.
He managed to impress quite a few people in fact. Not counting the family of the man and his grandson who were also killed.
Youth should never have been wasted on the young.
Psychologists have far too much time on their hands if they thought youthful behaviour warranted a study.
"It's the young part that is the most significant factor. Groups of young men do not require beautiful women to justify reckless behavior - think fraternity, death by dare etc."
Exactly, beautiful women make matters worse but aren't the main cause. Just take a look at all the youtube videos of young Saudi men and their weekend stunt driving get togethers!
A big Bingo! for Abe froman. This study was sponsored by the World Heath and Safety Board and financed by a burka manufacturing outfit!
I would like to know how a group of young male skateboarders are a representative sample of men. How about female skateboarders, how did they react to the same scenario? Is the correlation because they are skateboarders, male, or male skateboarders? Its just more garbage "science".
just in case its more than skateboarding.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587980,00.html
Another bingo, this one for Eric."Its just more garbage "science"."
Funny thing about research. One asks a relevant question from a different angle and the behaviour deemed 'foolish' may become 'worthy of the risk' depending on the quality of the subject in focus.
youtube.com/watch?v=2tGieanN5JQ&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=ZtcWU1lyssk
or 'Tiffy' [can really sing!]
youtube.com/watch?v=J8vcifoDwec
Gals see our flippin' as foolish but men fully understand that considering the worthiness, the effort is an ultimate wisdom.
Research, just can't be trusted.
Less risk; more risque...:)