Single Women May Stare at Men More
June 4, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
This is a bit of a “duh” study with an interesting twist. Neuroscientists found that a woman’s partner status influences her interest in the opposite sex. Really?
In the study, women without sexual partners spent longer looking at photos of men, showing a greater interest in the photos than women with partners.
However, the same study found that no such difference occurred with men. Sex partner or not, men spent relatively the same amount of time looking at photos of the opposite sex.
Subjects included 59 men and 56 women, ages 17 to 26. They were instructed to quickly give their “gut” reaction to 510 photos of opposite-sex faces. They rated the faces for realism, masculinity/femininity, attractiveness or affect.
Believe it or not, this is the first study to examine whether having a current sexual partner influences interest in the opposite sex. It was led by neuroscientist Heather Rupp and published in the March issue of Human Nature.
(Image via stock.xchng)
