HOME |
RSS | 
Savoring the colorful research of an under-publicized researcher
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell and Stephen Drew
This issue’s under-publicized scientist is Nicolas Guéguen, who finds significance, or at least fascination, in the goad of small things. He does what might be called voyeuristic microscopy, watching how people react to mundanely noticeable sights and sounds and touching. Many of the experiments involve young female confederates who are shaped or perfumed or who lay a hand upon strangers in particular ways. Generally, the test subjects who respond most vigorously are men.
Based at the University of Bretagne-Sud, France, Professor Guéguen has been pumping out publications since the year 2000. He honors the academic custom of referring to himself, in print, with the royal “we.”
His experiments probe a range of human behavior.
A study called “Women’s Bust Size and Men’s Courtship Solicitation,” 1 describes how Professor Guéguen tested “the effect of a woman’s breast size on approaches made by males. We hypothesized that an increase in breast size would be associated with an increase in approaches by men.” The study ends with an 827-word assertion that “Our hypothesis was confirmed.”
A related experiment produced a study called “Bust Size and Hitchhiking: A Field Study.”2 There Professor Guéguen reports that “1200 male and female French motorists were tested in a hitchhiking situation. A 20-year-old female confederate wore a bra which permitted variation in the size of cup to vary her breast size. She stood by the side of a road frequented by hitchhikers and held out her thumb to catch a ride. Increasing the bra-size of the female hitchhiker was significantly associated with an increase in number of male drivers, but not female drivers, who stopped to offer a ride.”
more …
There have been many studies about what body part attracts the opposite sex, but few studies that compare the importance of body parts to each other. A new study suggests that people assign more importance to faces than bodies when they are looking for a long-term relationship. For a potential short-term relationship, men assigned slightly more importance to the appearance of a woman’s body, while women cared more about a man’s face.
Statistical analysis of men rating women indicated that, even though both the body and face ratings were significant positive predictors of the ratings given to the combined images, the face ratings were stronger predictors of the combined ratings. It was also observed that the ratings for combined images was slightly higher for short term relationships as compared to long term relationships. One other significant observation – when the short term and long term relationship data were analyzed separately, the body ratings stood as more significant predictors to the combined ratings than face ratings, for short term relationships. In the case of females rating men, similar to men – the body and face ratings were both significant predictors with the face ratings being very strong predictors as compared to the body ratings. However, females ratings for men did not show any difference under the short term and long term decisions.
This only makes sense, as we tend to cover our bodies most of the time, but you have to look at that face a lot. Link -via Digg
Here’s another case of science proving what we all knew in the back of our minds. Men pretty much agree on what makes a woman attractive, while women have their own ideas about what is attractive in men. A survey led by Wake Forest University psychologist Dustin Wood showed pictures of people to 4,000 adults of all ages, and had them rate the photographs for attractiveness on a scale of one to ten.
Men’s judgments of women’s attractiveness were based primarily around physical features and they rated highly those who looked thin and seductive. Most of the men in the study also rated photographs of women who looked confident as more attractive.
As a group, the women rating men showed some preference for thin, muscular subjects, but disagreed on how attractive many men in the study were. Some women gave high attractiveness ratings to the men other women said were not attractive at all.
(image credit: Flickr user mod as hell)
