I don’t make this stuff up. National Geographic reports these findings from a recent study:
Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.
Men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as “I push, I grasp, I handle,” said lead researcher Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University.
And in a “shocking” finding, Fiske noted, some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another’s intentions.
This means that these men see women “as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds,” Fiske said. “The lack of activation in this social cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens.” Read the full article
That’s another vote for modesty. b-)
3 comments
Anonymous
It’s a poorly done study with sexist overtones. Focuses on one gender and one specific age group, then purports that these findings are representative of all men, and implies that nice biology kicks in, men’s moral compasses fly out the window.
Additionally these findings, if they are the entire truth, mean that men can’t be held morally responsible for sexual objectification, because they can’t help doing it. If that’s the case, then any woman who complains about it is being insensitive and intolerant.
And think about it for a second- how would people react if a study were done that argued that the same part of women’s brains light up when they see pictures of men and pictures of money?
gretchen
That’s exactly what my husband said. :D
Tricia Binion Gardner
And they had to do a study to figure this out? ;)