Men often feel greater positive internal feedback when seeing attractive women than when receiving money, according to a new study.
A study asked 18 heterosexual men to determine whether they would rather see a fuzzy picture of an attractive female or receive a small amount of money.
The study found men received greater internal positive feedback when they chose to see an attractive woman than when they chose to receive the money.
While participants made this decision, researchers recorded their brain responses in order to determine whether “different neurophysiological mechanisms” were involved when choosing between attractive women or money.
“Men received greater internal positive feedback when
they chose to see a woman than receive money.”
The attractive women pictured were divided between “beautiful” women and “sexy” women.
“Beautiful” women were dressed conservatively with a “positive or pleasant” facial expression, while “sexy” women were dressed in bikinis or underwear and posed in provocative postures.
Men took longer to make a choice when they wanted to view a picture of a “sexy” woman than of a “beautiful” woman.
Additionally, when men had to choose between seeing a picture of a sexy woman or getting money, those men experienced “significantly higher positive ERP components” than when they had to choose between seeing a beautiful woman or receiving money, indicating “sexy female images may have higher decision value than beautiful ones.”
Researchers noted attractive women offer more direct and primal rewards than money, referring to women as “primary rewards” and money as “secondary rewards,” evolutionarily speaking.
Source: Plosone.org.
