An article in the journal EvolutionandHumanBehavior tells the story of Cari Goetz, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, and her team who conducted a study on the hypothesis that men tend to be more prone to sex. The study was conducted with 76 men, and the results showed that they generally found women who were vulnerable to be more attractive.
The researchers said, “In the photos shown, the male study subjects found it easier to have sex with women who appeared a little lethargic and looked dopey. We also aggregated 22 actions, 19 of which clearly showed sexual seduction.”
In the history of psychological development, “exploitable” describes a woman who is more willing or comfortable having sex with a strange man, even if she is a prostitute or a pornographer. Goetz’s hypothesis that modern women are more sensitive to the consequences of pregnancy caused by one-night stands makes women less likely than men to participate in the experiment. The purpose of the experiment was to test whether women who seemed lazy or dull were really more appealing to the average man.
The researchers began by asking the undeclared students to perform a variety of specific actions, postures, attitudes, etc. associated with being soft (tired, intoxicated, or goofy). In the end, the experiment participants exhibited a total of 88 signature movements that seemed to make women more acceptable to men. These gestures included: pursing lips, scowling, languid, easily intoxicated, wearing tight clothes, chubby, short, naive, small and ignorant, appearing curious, or stroking breasts to appear soft. Next, Goetz and her colleagues found pictures of women doing these 88 seductive actions on the Internet and showed them to the study subjects one by one. They then showed the other 76 guys pictures of women who appeared more likely to have a one-night stand and asked them what they found attractive about each woman in the pictures, how they could have sex with her, and whether they thought the women were suitable for short-term or long-term partners.
The experiment showed that thin, short women were not attractive in any way, and the subjects did not think they were more likely to have a one-night stand or be attractive enough to be their partner. But when women appeared dull or sleepy or drunk, men easily perceived them as more suitable for a one-night stand. More importantly, dull women are easier to find attractive than their more organized and intelligent counterparts, but of course, these are all predicated on maintaining a short-term relationship. When men are asked if they would like to make these nerdy-looking women their long-term girlfriends or wives, they immediately lose interest.
In the next experiment, the authors wanted to explore more subtle differences about this hypothesis. Graduate student David Lewis started at ground zero, where he focused on what types of men were more sensitive to such sexually seductive actions. lewis and his colleagues called 72 normal men to observe the same photos as before. This time, the researchers also tested some important personality traits of the men themselves, as well as what level of unconditional sexual relations they craved and wanted to pursue. This experiment found that men who themselves lacked empathy and warmth were more likely to have messy sex with women who exhibited sexual temptation, meaning that not all men are as vulgar when it comes to pursuing sexual relationships.