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"Consider one study from 1974. Researchers had an attractive female interviewer stop one group of men crossing a scary suspension bridge and another one crossin
by partisan 10y ago
"Consider one study from 1974. Researchers had an attractive female interviewer stop one group of men crossing a scary suspension bridge and another one crossing a bridge that wasn’t scary. The women asked the men to fill out a questionnaire. The men on the scary bridge responded to the questions with more sexual content, and were significantly more likely to try to contact the interviewer after it was over. This suggests that the men on the scary bridge interpreted (unconsciously) their body’s reaction to the bridge as added attraction to the interviewer."
Personally, I would conclude that the men felt more confident about their chances after having demonstrated their capabilities as worthy mates. Additionally, after having overcome the bridge, they were now ready to try their chances at the challenge of wooing the researcher.
- Terr_ 10y agoOr perhaps reminders of personal-mortality increase interest in procreation to sustain the species.
- monomyth 10y agoOr perhaps different people in different places react differently.
- thousande 10y agoMaybe, fear and the sexual impulse is often described as related. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-embodied-mind/201301/sexual-attraction-and-survival-mode https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-embodied-mind/20130... Antony Beevor's book "Berlin: The Downfall 1945" comes to mind. There is a chapter in that book where the witnesses describes increased sexual activity in the city during and between the bombardments.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoOr perhaps they were men who liked the adrenaline rush of the 'scary bridge' and were pleased to find a female that appeared to also like that rush. As an experimental setup I too was unconvinced it adequately accounted for other effects.
- duaneb 10y agoEvolution doesn't require conscious knowledge of sexual pressure. Why would men be constantly evaluating their sexual value as opposed to simply having a reaction to the situation? The latter would be all that's necessary to provide mating motive.
- akiselev 10y agoI wouldn't conclude anything. Even if you assume that the interviewer didn't know the parameters for the experiment, their biases could have accounted for the results. If a few of the interviewers were attracted to outdoorsy men and were biased towards the ones who crossed the dangerous bridge, their body language alone is likely to get a very different response. You'd need a pretty large sample size of interviewers and subjects with varying attractiveness, "outgoingness", and confidence to draw any real conclusion.