Science: Men Like To Look At Women
In yet another ground breaking scientific study, a University of Nebraska study confirms that men do look at attractive women when they see them:
The eyes don’t lie: Men really do look at women’s bodies more than their faces, according to a new study that used eye-tracking technology to prove what many women have long observed.
But it’s not just men who do it — the study found that women look at other women’s bodies, too.
“We live in a culture in which we constantly see women objectified in interactions on television and in the media. When you turn your own lens on everyday, ordinary women, we focus on those parts, too,” says lead author and social psychologist Sarah Gervais of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“Until now, we didn’t have evidence people were actually doing that to women’s bodies,” she says. “We have women’s self-reports, but this is some of the first work to document that people actually engage in this.”
The participants – 29 women and 36 men – were outfitted with the eye-tracking system, which measures in milliseconds how long the eyes are fixed on certain spots. Their gazes reacted to photographs of the same 10 women, each with three different digitally manipulated body shapes – curvaceous, much less curvaceous and in-between. (Only women’s bodies were viewed by study participants.) Both sexes fixed their gaze more on women’s chests and waists and less on faces. Those bodies with larger breasts, narrower waists and bigger hips often prompted longer looks.
Coming next week: Men also like to drink beer and watch football on the weekends.
I’m guessing this was done with government funding
There are lots of interesting studies about how we respond to beauty. In one they sent out women to do door-to-door collections for charity. Similar to above, beautiful women got more donations from men … but from women as well.
FWIW, I don’t think it’s “culture.”
I think it’s human nature, spanning cultures.
@john personna:
But the definitions of beauty vary with culture. So maybe it is both.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Possibly, but if you check out the ladies holding up the porch of the Erechtheion (420BC), they’re pretty fit.
News Break! Really, does any one really think that it’s an accident that many sales reps are young good looking women?
I’ll never forget my first week at a new financial management position about 25 years ago. I received a call from a business sales rep with whom we had done business with many times in the past. She introduced herself and asked if she could come by the office and introduce herself. Two days later she came by the office, I stepped into the reception area to meet her … she was drop dead gorgeous. Unfortunately we did not have the need to purchase or lease office furnishings from her at that moment – otherwise I might have refurnished the entire office. So, yes – if the sales rep looks like Charlize Theron or Rachel Weisz, I might very well be influenced.
It’s human nature, no matter how many times people try to deny it.
@Bob Beller: probably during the sequester.
@john personna:
I think we’ll need another study to determine that.
@rodney dill:
Don’t get me started on ancient Indians.
@john personna: I can’t stop staring at that temple.
(…and I have the eyes for it.)
OK…that’s settled.
Now can Science explain Republican fascination with male genitalia?
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/obama-didnt-know-about-nsa-spying-on-foreign-leaders/#comment-1823391
My X-wife used to tell me you can look all you want just don’t touch!
@Ron Beasley: My mother always said, “I don’t care where he gets his appetite, so long as he eats at home.”
A family friend who was a priest liked to say, “Just ’cause I’m on a diet, doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.”
@john personna:
But if you look at them women of the Baroque you find an entirely different concept of beauty.
What I find interesting is that women look too. All this time I thought my wife was just especially insecure. Sad that we have inflicted this insecurity on most women.
@OzarkHillbilly: Baroque? more gov’t deficit innuendo?
Love beautiful women, hate beer and sports.
Speaking of Baroque…it’s coming back…if I believed in God I would thank her for that…
http://www.inspirefirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Plus-Size-Models-Ashley-Graham-InspirationsWeb.com_.png
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am starting to think that period was more an anomaly. If you go back to truly ancient art, you find beauty that would fit right in today. See also Thai statues, or Minoan frescos.
A followup study on what self-identified gay men and lesbians look at would be interesting.
More baroque…
http://24.media.tumblr.com/a16416ea75c9e5396cb9ea2b543fc938/tumblr_mleyoopdHr1qatyzio1_1280.jpg
@C. Clavin: Exactly, C. Clavin, look at Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey…….
It’s more “Science: men and women look at women’s bodies more than their faces.”
Of course, face is one part of the body. One might expect, when looking at someone’s picture, people might look at all of them. 3 seconds on face + 3 on upper body + 3 on lower body = a “more time on non-face than face” result.
And as the article says, they didn’t look at men. So it doesn’t tell you much.
@C. Clavin: Hmm, I think the women in the Baroque era could use a little exercise or something …
But if it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it!
@ Franklin…
It’s OK…I go both ways…
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Keira-Knightley-keira-knightley-229091_1024_768.jpg
@john personna: and people wonder how there’s a billion plus over there?
@OzarkHillbilly: women dress for women, from what i hear.
They also like to stuff their gobs with fat and sugar.
does seem a bit banal but if this is part of a research program that intends to look at cross cultural, could be interesting. Of course rarely do journos do proper justice to research papers so there is a chance the research is less obvious than it would appear. A chance.
BTW re images there is already good research showing that for men the body proportion *ratios* (for any given weight of a woman) seen as desirable are remarkably consistent. Size, cultural, ratios, perhaps hard wired.
Seems to me the scientists will research anything these days
Like I keep telling the girls, “Uh, my eyes are up HERE”