January 08, 2009
A woman may not consciously think of a man's sweat during intimate moments. But her brain appears to recognize the scent and the significance of the emotions it conveys right away.
That's the conclusion of a Rice University study that exposed 19 twentysomething women to various scents, including "normal" sweat from males as well as so-called "sexual" sweat -- more on this in a moment.
Although the research doesn't have immediate implications for male-female relationships -- don't put away the cologne just yet, fellas -- it does advance scientists' understanding of how humans communicate chemically.
Everyone pretty well understands how people communicate through talking and facial expressions. But elsewhere in the animal kingdom, chemicals such as pheromones are commonly used to communicate, be it to attract a mate or warn a competitor.
The question Rice psychologist Denise Chen and her colleagues set out to better understand is how people might communicate chemically and, more specifically, how the brain processes chemical signals from other humans.
The experiment they devised involved the collection of sweat from men who wore rayon/polyester pads under their armpits. For normal sweat, they watched 20-minute educational videos and, for sexual sweat, 20-minute erotic videos.
As it happens, humans have a variety of sweat glands. The sweat produced after a long day's work is different from that after a workout, which is different, in turn, from that produced by a roll in the hay.
Chen and her colleagues then devised settings in which female participants were exposed to different sweat "scents" while being monitored by brain-scanning, magnetic resonance imaging equipment. The women didn't know what they were smelling and couldn't differentiate among the various types of sweats.
But their brains could.
"The sexual sweat lit up different regions of their brains," Chen said.
She said the work suggests the brain can recognize an emotional component in sexual sweat, somehow differentiating it from normal sweat.
The research is part of an emerging scientific discipline that aims to determine whether human brains can process pheromones -- chemicals that trigger a natural behavioral response in animals of the same species.
"This is a very hot and controversial area of research," said Dr. Jay Gottfried, an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University.
The Chen study, Gottfried said, adds to the scientific debate, because it used natural scents rather than synthetic ones.
The next step, he said, is to determine whether sweat scents trigger behavioral changes in woman, such as making them feel more or less attracted to a man.
Feb 27, 2009
An Evolving View of Depression
- January 19, 2009
An occasional column on mental health.
In the world of therapy, Dr. Aaron T. Beck is a rock star.
Considered the father of cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychological treatment that has swept the country in recent decades, he has been so famous for so long that some are surprised to find out that he is still, at 87, hard at work.
Beck has recently come out with a new, overarching theory of depression, the mood darkness that in any given year afflicts an estimated 5 percent of Americans (and probably a higher percentage this year).
More than a generation ago, Beck helped overturn the classical idea that depression was "anger turned inward," a form of self-punishment.
Instead, back then he put forth a cognitive model of depression - that it is a problem of negative bias and habits of thought. Any failure means "I am a loser." A rejection means "Nobody loves me."
Now, he has updated his cognitive model with the latest advances in brain science and genetics, and published it in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Beck, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, cautions that much of the research he cites is still preliminary. But he sketches out a coherent overview of converging psychology and biology that goes roughly like this:
Begin with genes. Beck and others used to speculate about a "blue gene." Researchers are now beginning to identify specific genes that could make the brain "hyperreactive to negative experiences," leading to depression, he writes.
For example, a gene that affects the brain chemical serotonin appears to influence how likely it is that a major stressful event will lead to depression. Studies suggest this serotonin gene is also linked to a tendency toward negative thinking.
How could a gene lead to negative thinking? Well, to continue the example, that serotonin gene appears to make the amygdala, an emotional center of the brain, hyperactive.
Studies have found that a hyperactive amygdala is linked to extra sensitivity to negative stimuli, such as unpleasant images or events.
People end up viewing the world negatively - noticing the weeds, not the flowers.
Other studies suggest a biological pathway to depression involving stress hormones that Beck summarizes this way: Stressful events trigger the hypersensitive amygdala to overact, producing a distorted negative reaction, which prompts excessive stress hormones, leading to depression.
There is also a "top-down" piece of the puzzle: brain scans have found that in depressed people, the prefrontal cortex, known as the seat of rational thought, tends to be underactive.
They are not getting the needed reality check that says "Things are not really so bad." That may help explain how therapy that encourages depressed people to "reappraise" things, to challenge their negative responses, can act to lift mood. Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to help patients by focusing on problems in their thinking and teaching them ways to improve it.
There's more. But it seemed the easiest way to sum it up was to ask Beck what he would say these days if a patient asked, "Why am I depressed?"
His answer: "I would say that there is an interplay of genetic, developmental, and stress factors, and the contribution of each of these factors varies from individual to individual. Some individuals, for example, are depressed only if there is overwhelming stress. Others are vulnerable because of their genetic make up and become depressed with minor stressors."
And how does that answer differ from, say, 20 years ago? Back then, he said, he would have emphasized only the psychological factors, and left the genetic and biological factors "up in the air."
He believes, he said, that even a patient who is biologically vulnerable to depression can be helped by effective therapy. For severely depressed patients, he recommends cognitive therapy in conjunction with medication.
Beck's model of depression has evolved admirably, but it does not make the problem of depression simpler, said Philip Levendusky, director of the psychology department at McLean Hospital in Belmont.
The model reflects the fact that depression is complex and has many dimensions, Levendusky said.
Brain science has made amazing advances in recent years, but it is still light years away from understanding mental illness. Beck's theory is a snapshot of the state of the science - it is, Levendusky said, "a quantum jump beyond where we were once upon a time, and probably three quantum jumps from where we'll ultimately be."
Still, Beck ends his August 2008 American Journal of Psychiatry article, which he said brought him a far greater response than anything else he had written, with optimism.
"I have reason to hope that future research will perhaps provide a new paradigm which for the first time can integrate findings from psychological and biological studies to build a new understanding of depression," he wrote.
And in the meanwhile, said Michael W. Otto, director of Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, depression can be treated even without a full understanding of its origins.
However it starts, he said, it has a life of its own. "It's a pattern that needs to be broken," he said, "and the evidence is that it can be broken."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.
c.2009 The Boston Globe
An occasional column on mental health.
In the world of therapy, Dr. Aaron T. Beck is a rock star.
Considered the father of cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychological treatment that has swept the country in recent decades, he has been so famous for so long that some are surprised to find out that he is still, at 87, hard at work.
Beck has recently come out with a new, overarching theory of depression, the mood darkness that in any given year afflicts an estimated 5 percent of Americans (and probably a higher percentage this year).
More than a generation ago, Beck helped overturn the classical idea that depression was "anger turned inward," a form of self-punishment.
Instead, back then he put forth a cognitive model of depression - that it is a problem of negative bias and habits of thought. Any failure means "I am a loser." A rejection means "Nobody loves me."
Now, he has updated his cognitive model with the latest advances in brain science and genetics, and published it in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Beck, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, cautions that much of the research he cites is still preliminary. But he sketches out a coherent overview of converging psychology and biology that goes roughly like this:
Begin with genes. Beck and others used to speculate about a "blue gene." Researchers are now beginning to identify specific genes that could make the brain "hyperreactive to negative experiences," leading to depression, he writes.
For example, a gene that affects the brain chemical serotonin appears to influence how likely it is that a major stressful event will lead to depression. Studies suggest this serotonin gene is also linked to a tendency toward negative thinking.
How could a gene lead to negative thinking? Well, to continue the example, that serotonin gene appears to make the amygdala, an emotional center of the brain, hyperactive.
Studies have found that a hyperactive amygdala is linked to extra sensitivity to negative stimuli, such as unpleasant images or events.
People end up viewing the world negatively - noticing the weeds, not the flowers.
Other studies suggest a biological pathway to depression involving stress hormones that Beck summarizes this way: Stressful events trigger the hypersensitive amygdala to overact, producing a distorted negative reaction, which prompts excessive stress hormones, leading to depression.
There is also a "top-down" piece of the puzzle: brain scans have found that in depressed people, the prefrontal cortex, known as the seat of rational thought, tends to be underactive.
They are not getting the needed reality check that says "Things are not really so bad." That may help explain how therapy that encourages depressed people to "reappraise" things, to challenge their negative responses, can act to lift mood. Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to help patients by focusing on problems in their thinking and teaching them ways to improve it.
There's more. But it seemed the easiest way to sum it up was to ask Beck what he would say these days if a patient asked, "Why am I depressed?"
His answer: "I would say that there is an interplay of genetic, developmental, and stress factors, and the contribution of each of these factors varies from individual to individual. Some individuals, for example, are depressed only if there is overwhelming stress. Others are vulnerable because of their genetic make up and become depressed with minor stressors."
And how does that answer differ from, say, 20 years ago? Back then, he said, he would have emphasized only the psychological factors, and left the genetic and biological factors "up in the air."
He believes, he said, that even a patient who is biologically vulnerable to depression can be helped by effective therapy. For severely depressed patients, he recommends cognitive therapy in conjunction with medication.
Beck's model of depression has evolved admirably, but it does not make the problem of depression simpler, said Philip Levendusky, director of the psychology department at McLean Hospital in Belmont.
The model reflects the fact that depression is complex and has many dimensions, Levendusky said.
Brain science has made amazing advances in recent years, but it is still light years away from understanding mental illness. Beck's theory is a snapshot of the state of the science - it is, Levendusky said, "a quantum jump beyond where we were once upon a time, and probably three quantum jumps from where we'll ultimately be."
Still, Beck ends his August 2008 American Journal of Psychiatry article, which he said brought him a far greater response than anything else he had written, with optimism.
"I have reason to hope that future research will perhaps provide a new paradigm which for the first time can integrate findings from psychological and biological studies to build a new understanding of depression," he wrote.
And in the meanwhile, said Michael W. Otto, director of Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, depression can be treated even without a full understanding of its origins.
However it starts, he said, it has a life of its own. "It's a pattern that needs to be broken," he said, "and the evidence is that it can be broken."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.
c.2009 The Boston Globe
Psychologist looks to monks for keys to happiness
Evolution has given the human brain a vast prefrontal cortex, a ball of neural tissue that enables us to engage in abstract reasoning, reflect on the past, and make predictions about the future.
It also allows us to wander a mental landscape filled with emotional minefields, says Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin.
"It allows us to screw up our emotions far more than other animals," he said during a visit to the University of Utah this week. "It allows us to persist in emotional responses beyond which they are still useful."
The answer to that disordered brain function may lie in mental training perfected by Buddhist monks over the centuries in Tibet, Davidson told a crowd of at least 600 who overflowed the Utah Museum of Fine Arts auditorium Wednesday for the Tanner Lecture on Human Values.
Davidson has become famous for using high-tech imaging to document the startling control the monks demonstrate over their emotional states. His resulting ideas about "neuroplasticity" -- the notion that we can enhance brain function through purposeful mental training -- threaten to upend conventional psychotherapy, which has little scientific basis.
"We were all taught that the brain is different from other organs in the way it changes over time. We thought the process was one of irrevocable death," Davidson said. "We now know that view is definitively wrong. The brain is capable of generating 7,000
to 9,000 cells a day."
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, allows researchers like Davidson to observe brain function with unprecedented precision, bringing new scientific rigor to social science, experts said Thursday morning at a follow-up panel discussion. Davidson's findings hold potential for developing mental training techniques to improve people's health and quality of life, said psychiatrist Daniel Siegel.
"These are not just weird ideas. These are research-based interventions that can be applied in the real world," said Siegel, an expert in the field of interpersonal neurobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "When you teach these reflective skills to kids, they not only do better emotionally and socially, they also do better academically."
Davidson's work with monks was triggered by a visit with the Dalai Lama. The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism recruited masters of the faith, monks who had spent an average of 34,000 hours in intense meditation, for Davidson's studies.
Using scans that track brain function, the psychologist recorded high levels of activity in the parts of the monks' brains associated with emotional well-being. In further studies on other people, Davidson documented measurable changes in brain activity after two-week periods of mental training.
"The brain is the only organ designed to change in response to experience. Musical training changes the structure of the brain and when it begins earlier in life the greater the influence," he said.
It also allows us to wander a mental landscape filled with emotional minefields, says Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin.
"It allows us to screw up our emotions far more than other animals," he said during a visit to the University of Utah this week. "It allows us to persist in emotional responses beyond which they are still useful."
The answer to that disordered brain function may lie in mental training perfected by Buddhist monks over the centuries in Tibet, Davidson told a crowd of at least 600 who overflowed the Utah Museum of Fine Arts auditorium Wednesday for the Tanner Lecture on Human Values.
Davidson has become famous for using high-tech imaging to document the startling control the monks demonstrate over their emotional states. His resulting ideas about "neuroplasticity" -- the notion that we can enhance brain function through purposeful mental training -- threaten to upend conventional psychotherapy, which has little scientific basis.
"We were all taught that the brain is different from other organs in the way it changes over time. We thought the process was one of irrevocable death," Davidson said. "We now know that view is definitively wrong. The brain is capable of generating 7,000
to 9,000 cells a day."
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, allows researchers like Davidson to observe brain function with unprecedented precision, bringing new scientific rigor to social science, experts said Thursday morning at a follow-up panel discussion. Davidson's findings hold potential for developing mental training techniques to improve people's health and quality of life, said psychiatrist Daniel Siegel.
"These are not just weird ideas. These are research-based interventions that can be applied in the real world," said Siegel, an expert in the field of interpersonal neurobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "When you teach these reflective skills to kids, they not only do better emotionally and socially, they also do better academically."
Davidson's work with monks was triggered by a visit with the Dalai Lama. The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism recruited masters of the faith, monks who had spent an average of 34,000 hours in intense meditation, for Davidson's studies.
Using scans that track brain function, the psychologist recorded high levels of activity in the parts of the monks' brains associated with emotional well-being. In further studies on other people, Davidson documented measurable changes in brain activity after two-week periods of mental training.
"The brain is the only organ designed to change in response to experience. Musical training changes the structure of the brain and when it begins earlier in life the greater the influence," he said.
Dating choice more about science,
CHICAGO, Feb 14, 2009
Personality types directed by your brain's neurochemicals may unveil who you are and whom you love, said professor of anthropology Helen Fisher Saturday, the Valentines's Day.
Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist and author of Why We Love, presented her latest research results on human mating choice, at the American Academy or Arts and Sciences (AAAS) 2009 annual meeting.
Fisher has devoted 30 years of research and five books to the study of human attraction. She believes that DNA dictates the chemical makeup of brains and determines to whom people are most attracted.
After examining the personality type and dating choices of about 28,000 individuals by a questionnaire on the online dating site Chemistry.com, Fisher reported how one's primary neuro-driven personality type guided the initial dating choice.
She and her co-researchers identified four personality types: explorers, builders, directors and negotiators.
"Love is a complicated mechanism," she said. "Although today I only covered it as a biological mechanism, dating choice involves both cultural and biological reasons."
As for long-term relationships, she said "It's not been studied yet but I encourage all couples who have been in a long-term relationship to go to my website and take the survey ..."
AAAS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people. Founded in 1848, it serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, and 10 million individuals.
Personality types directed by your brain's neurochemicals may unveil who you are and whom you love, said professor of anthropology Helen Fisher Saturday, the Valentines's Day.
Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist and author of Why We Love, presented her latest research results on human mating choice, at the American Academy or Arts and Sciences (AAAS) 2009 annual meeting.
Fisher has devoted 30 years of research and five books to the study of human attraction. She believes that DNA dictates the chemical makeup of brains and determines to whom people are most attracted.
After examining the personality type and dating choices of about 28,000 individuals by a questionnaire on the online dating site Chemistry.com, Fisher reported how one's primary neuro-driven personality type guided the initial dating choice.
She and her co-researchers identified four personality types: explorers, builders, directors and negotiators.
"Love is a complicated mechanism," she said. "Although today I only covered it as a biological mechanism, dating choice involves both cultural and biological reasons."
As for long-term relationships, she said "It's not been studied yet but I encourage all couples who have been in a long-term relationship to go to my website and take the survey ..."
AAAS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people. Founded in 1848, it serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, and 10 million individuals.
Money Can Buy You Happiness, If It's Spent the Right Way
By Shari Roan
Los Angeles Times
Money is an emotional issue, especially during economic hard times. Social scientists have always warned that once a person's basic needs are met, money doesn't buy happiness.
But if you're wondering, or maybe even arguing over, what to do with any precious discretionary income these days, a new study suggests how to get the biggest emotional bang for your buck.
Ryan Howell, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, found that buying experiences - such as vacations, going to the theater or renting a sailboat - gave people more happiness than buying material things. The study, of 154 people ages 19 to 50, showed that experiences increase happiness because they are often social in nature.
In addition, experiences tend to make people feel more alive. "People report a sense of feeling invigorated or inspired," Howell said. Experiences may also yield more happiness because people are left with positive memories, a sort of return on their investment.
"It's not that material things don't bring any happiness. It's just that they don't bring as much," Howell said. "You're happy with a new television set. But you're thrilled with a vacation."
The study may yield some lessons for Americans in despair over the recession. "For whatever you can afford, you'll maximize your happiness, and the happiness of others around you, if you spend it on a life experience," Howell said.
It doesn't matter how much money you spend, either. "Whether you spent a little or a lot on the life experience, you still have the same level of happiness," he said.
The study was presented earlier this month at an annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and will be published later this year in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
Los Angeles Times
Money is an emotional issue, especially during economic hard times. Social scientists have always warned that once a person's basic needs are met, money doesn't buy happiness.
But if you're wondering, or maybe even arguing over, what to do with any precious discretionary income these days, a new study suggests how to get the biggest emotional bang for your buck.
Ryan Howell, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, found that buying experiences - such as vacations, going to the theater or renting a sailboat - gave people more happiness than buying material things. The study, of 154 people ages 19 to 50, showed that experiences increase happiness because they are often social in nature.
In addition, experiences tend to make people feel more alive. "People report a sense of feeling invigorated or inspired," Howell said. Experiences may also yield more happiness because people are left with positive memories, a sort of return on their investment.
"It's not that material things don't bring any happiness. It's just that they don't bring as much," Howell said. "You're happy with a new television set. But you're thrilled with a vacation."
The study may yield some lessons for Americans in despair over the recession. "For whatever you can afford, you'll maximize your happiness, and the happiness of others around you, if you spend it on a life experience," Howell said.
It doesn't matter how much money you spend, either. "Whether you spent a little or a lot on the life experience, you still have the same level of happiness," he said.
The study was presented earlier this month at an annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and will be published later this year in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
Feb 26, 2009
Το γονίδιο της ευτυχίας
Ένα και μόνο γονίδιο ευθύνεται για το κατά πόσο οι άνθρωποι βλέπουν το ποτήρι μισοάδειο ή μισογεμάτο, σύμφωνα με Βρετανούς επιστήμονες.
Προηγούμενες έρευνες έχουν ήδη εντοπίσει το γονίδιο 5-HTTLPR ως ρυθμιστικό του τρόπου λειτουργίας της σεροτονίνης στον εγκέφαλο. Η ορμόνη αυτή μεταφέρει χημικά σήματα μεταξύ των νευροκυττάρων, ενώ έχει σχετισθεί άμεσα με την ανθρώπινη διάθεση. Πολλά αντικαταθλιπτικά μάλιστα επιδιώκουν να ρυθμίσουν τα επίπεδα της στον οργανισμό.
Οι επιστήμονες εντόπισαν επίσης τρεις παραλλαγές του γονιδίου. Δύο από αυτές συνδέθηκαν μάλιστα με αυξημένο κίνδυνο κατάθλιψης ή απόπειρας αυτοκτονίας. Σε αντίθεση με την τρίτη παραλλαγή, θεωρείται επίσης ότι προκαλούν υπερβολικές νευροχημικές αντιδράσεις σε αγχώδεις καταστάσεις.
Τρεις ερευνητές από το πανεπιστήμιο του Έσεξ στη Βρετανία, μελέτησαν την επίδραση των διαφορετικών παραλλαγών της ορμόνης και των αποτελεσμάτων στον οργανισμό. Οι 97 συμμετέχοντες στην έρευνα παρακολούθησαν μια σειρά από slides, καθένα από τα οποία περιείχε δύο εικόνες που χρησιμοποιούνται σε ψυχομετρική αξιολόγηση. Οι εικόνες χωρίστηκαν σε τρεις κατηγορίες: Οι αρνητικές σχεδιάστηκαν για να εμπνέουν φόβο και άγχος, οι ερωτικές και οι ουδέτερες.
Οι 16 συμμετέχοντες που είχαν την τρίτη παραλλαγή του γονιδίου, έδειξαν να αγνοούν τις αρνητικές εικόνες, εστιάζοντας στις όμορφες. Αντίθετα, όσοι είχαν τις δύο άλλες παραλλαγές συμπεριφέρθηκαν ακριβώς αντίθετα. «Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας δείχνουν ότι η γενετική τάση να κοιτάμε τη θετική πλευρά των πραγμάτων είναι ένας μηχανισμός που υποδηλώνει την αντοχή στις γενικές αγχώδεις καταστάσεις», καταλήγει η μελέτη.
Προηγούμενες έρευνες έχουν ήδη εντοπίσει το γονίδιο 5-HTTLPR ως ρυθμιστικό του τρόπου λειτουργίας της σεροτονίνης στον εγκέφαλο. Η ορμόνη αυτή μεταφέρει χημικά σήματα μεταξύ των νευροκυττάρων, ενώ έχει σχετισθεί άμεσα με την ανθρώπινη διάθεση. Πολλά αντικαταθλιπτικά μάλιστα επιδιώκουν να ρυθμίσουν τα επίπεδα της στον οργανισμό.
Οι επιστήμονες εντόπισαν επίσης τρεις παραλλαγές του γονιδίου. Δύο από αυτές συνδέθηκαν μάλιστα με αυξημένο κίνδυνο κατάθλιψης ή απόπειρας αυτοκτονίας. Σε αντίθεση με την τρίτη παραλλαγή, θεωρείται επίσης ότι προκαλούν υπερβολικές νευροχημικές αντιδράσεις σε αγχώδεις καταστάσεις.
Τρεις ερευνητές από το πανεπιστήμιο του Έσεξ στη Βρετανία, μελέτησαν την επίδραση των διαφορετικών παραλλαγών της ορμόνης και των αποτελεσμάτων στον οργανισμό. Οι 97 συμμετέχοντες στην έρευνα παρακολούθησαν μια σειρά από slides, καθένα από τα οποία περιείχε δύο εικόνες που χρησιμοποιούνται σε ψυχομετρική αξιολόγηση. Οι εικόνες χωρίστηκαν σε τρεις κατηγορίες: Οι αρνητικές σχεδιάστηκαν για να εμπνέουν φόβο και άγχος, οι ερωτικές και οι ουδέτερες.
Οι 16 συμμετέχοντες που είχαν την τρίτη παραλλαγή του γονιδίου, έδειξαν να αγνοούν τις αρνητικές εικόνες, εστιάζοντας στις όμορφες. Αντίθετα, όσοι είχαν τις δύο άλλες παραλλαγές συμπεριφέρθηκαν ακριβώς αντίθετα. «Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας δείχνουν ότι η γενετική τάση να κοιτάμε τη θετική πλευρά των πραγμάτων είναι ένας μηχανισμός που υποδηλώνει την αντοχή στις γενικές αγχώδεις καταστάσεις», καταλήγει η μελέτη.
Feb 25, 2009
Beauty and the brain, women use more than men
WASHINGTON - Beauty is in the brain of the beholder. Go to any museum and there will be men and women admiring paintings and sculpture. But it turns out they are thinking about the sight differently. Men process beauty on the right side of their brains, while women use their whole brain to do the job, researchers report in Tuesday's electronic edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
They even explain it differently.
Novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Essayist David Hume: "Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."
Researchers were surprised by the finding.
"It is well known that there are differences between brain activity in women and men in cognitive tasks," said researcher Camilo J. Cela-Conde of the University of Baleares in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. "However, why should this kind of difference appear in the case of appreciation of beauty?"
The answer seems to be that when women consider a visual object they link it to language while men concentrate on the spatial aspects of the object, Cela-Conde said in an interview by e-mail.
He noted, however, that this doesn't explain why - and how - the human capacity to appreciate beauty evolved.
"The differences that we have found might relate to the different social roles that, hypothetically, men and women had during human evolution." he said.
The researchers tested 10 men and 10 women, showing them paintings and photos of urban scenes and landscapes, asking them to rate each scene as either "beautiful" or "not beautiful."
At the same time the scientists looked at images of the magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brains of the men and women.
For the first 300 milliseconds, there was no difference between male and female brains, and from 300 to 700 milliseconds activity was greater for objects that were rated as beautiful than for those that were not beautiful.
For both sexes the most active region was the parietal lobe that deals with visual perception, spatial orientation and information processing, but it was focused on the right side of the brain in men while both sides participated in women.
While there are differences between people as to what is beautiful and what isn't, Cela-Conde said they did not find identifiable differences related to sex.
"Any person can find beautiful a landscape, a building or a canvas that some others will find awful. But sex has little to do with those differences. Perhaps they relate with other variables, such as age or education." he said.
"It is curious that, using different neural networks, the final result is very similar in women and men. But this seems to be the case," Cela-Conde said.
He added: "Human nature is complex and difficult to study and understand. Nevertheless, thanks to scientific tools we are starting to know a bit more about some very important aspects of our nature."
They even explain it differently.
Novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Essayist David Hume: "Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."
Researchers were surprised by the finding.
"It is well known that there are differences between brain activity in women and men in cognitive tasks," said researcher Camilo J. Cela-Conde of the University of Baleares in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. "However, why should this kind of difference appear in the case of appreciation of beauty?"
The answer seems to be that when women consider a visual object they link it to language while men concentrate on the spatial aspects of the object, Cela-Conde said in an interview by e-mail.
He noted, however, that this doesn't explain why - and how - the human capacity to appreciate beauty evolved.
"The differences that we have found might relate to the different social roles that, hypothetically, men and women had during human evolution." he said.
The researchers tested 10 men and 10 women, showing them paintings and photos of urban scenes and landscapes, asking them to rate each scene as either "beautiful" or "not beautiful."
At the same time the scientists looked at images of the magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brains of the men and women.
For the first 300 milliseconds, there was no difference between male and female brains, and from 300 to 700 milliseconds activity was greater for objects that were rated as beautiful than for those that were not beautiful.
For both sexes the most active region was the parietal lobe that deals with visual perception, spatial orientation and information processing, but it was focused on the right side of the brain in men while both sides participated in women.
While there are differences between people as to what is beautiful and what isn't, Cela-Conde said they did not find identifiable differences related to sex.
"Any person can find beautiful a landscape, a building or a canvas that some others will find awful. But sex has little to do with those differences. Perhaps they relate with other variables, such as age or education." he said.
"It is curious that, using different neural networks, the final result is very similar in women and men. But this seems to be the case," Cela-Conde said.
He added: "Human nature is complex and difficult to study and understand. Nevertheless, thanks to scientific tools we are starting to know a bit more about some very important aspects of our nature."
Ο πλούτος φέρνει ... αγένεια
Μια τσάντα που αποτελεί τελευταία λέξη της μόδας ή ένα κοστούμι Armani μπορεί να δείξει ότι κάποια ή κάποιος έχει αρκετά χρήματα στο λογαριασμό τους. Όμως, όπως υποστηρίζει μία νέα επιστημονική έρευνα, το ίδιο μήνυμα τελικά μπορεί να «περάσει» και η γλώσσα του σώματος ή απλώς η ίδια η ...γλώσσα.
Απλούστατα, οι πιο πλούσιοι είναι πιο αγενείς, όταν μιλάνε με τους άλλους.
Οι ψυχολόγοι Μάικλ Κράους και Ντάχερ Κέλτνερ του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας-Μπέκλεϊ, σύμφωνα με την ηλεκτρονική υπηρεσία Live Science, βιντεοσκόπησαν διάφορες τετ-α-τετ συνομιλίες ανθρώπων αναλύοντας κυρίως ορισμένες χειρονομίες που δείχνουν το επίπεδο ενδιαφέροντος για τον άλλο.
Η έρευνα δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό Psychological Science.
Η βασική διαπίστωση είναι ότι όσοι έχουν υψηλότερο κοινωνικοοικονομικό στάτους, έχουν και πιο «αγενή» συμπεριφορά την ώρα που μιλάνε, μεταξύ άλλων περιποιούμενοι τον εαυτό τους, μουτζουρώνοντας αδιάφορα χαρτιά όταν συνομιλούν με τον άλλον ή κάνοντας συνεχώς νευρικές κινήσεις ανυπομονησίας.
Από την πλευρά, τα άτομα χαμηλότερου κοινωνικοοικονομικού επιπέδου δείχνουν περισσότερα σημάδια του τύπου «ενδιαφέρομαι», όπως γέλια ή σήκωμα των φρυδιών.
Οι πλουσιότεροι κατά μέσο όρο έπαιζαν νευρικά με ένα κοντινό αντικείμενο κατά μέσο όρο επί δύο δευτερόλεπτα στη διάρκεια μια δίλεπτης συνομιλίας τους, ενώ οι φτωχότεροι δεν έπαιζαν σχεδόν καθόλου.
Οι πλουσιότεροι, για σύντομα διαστήματα, έκαναν κινήσεις περιποίησης στο δικό τους σώμα, ενώ οι φτωχότεροι ποτέ. Οι φτωχότεροι κουνούσαν τα κεφάλια τους, γέλαγαν και σήκωναν τα φρύδια τους για τουλάχιστον δύο δευτερόλεπτα περισσότερο από τους πλουσιότερους.
Σύμφωνα με τους ερευνητές, η διαφορά στη συμπεριφορά έχει τις ρίζες της στο ζωικό μας παρελθόν και αντιστοιχεί στα σήματα που στέλνουν και σήμερα ζώα όπως τα παγώνια, φουντώνοντας τις ουρές τους για να περάσουν μηνύματα του τύπου «δες πόσο ωραίος είμαι»!
Οι πλουσιότεροι άνθρωποι δεν νοιάζονται αν θα γνέφουν με το κεφάλι τους ότι συμφωνούν ή αν θα γίνουν πιο αρεστοί με το να γελάσουν, κάτι που έχουν ανάγκη όμως οι φτωχότεροι που είναι και πιο εξαρτημένοι από τη γνώμη των άλλων.
Απλούστατα, οι πιο πλούσιοι είναι πιο αγενείς, όταν μιλάνε με τους άλλους.
Οι ψυχολόγοι Μάικλ Κράους και Ντάχερ Κέλτνερ του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας-Μπέκλεϊ, σύμφωνα με την ηλεκτρονική υπηρεσία Live Science, βιντεοσκόπησαν διάφορες τετ-α-τετ συνομιλίες ανθρώπων αναλύοντας κυρίως ορισμένες χειρονομίες που δείχνουν το επίπεδο ενδιαφέροντος για τον άλλο.
Η έρευνα δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό Psychological Science.
Η βασική διαπίστωση είναι ότι όσοι έχουν υψηλότερο κοινωνικοοικονομικό στάτους, έχουν και πιο «αγενή» συμπεριφορά την ώρα που μιλάνε, μεταξύ άλλων περιποιούμενοι τον εαυτό τους, μουτζουρώνοντας αδιάφορα χαρτιά όταν συνομιλούν με τον άλλον ή κάνοντας συνεχώς νευρικές κινήσεις ανυπομονησίας.
Από την πλευρά, τα άτομα χαμηλότερου κοινωνικοοικονομικού επιπέδου δείχνουν περισσότερα σημάδια του τύπου «ενδιαφέρομαι», όπως γέλια ή σήκωμα των φρυδιών.
Οι πλουσιότεροι κατά μέσο όρο έπαιζαν νευρικά με ένα κοντινό αντικείμενο κατά μέσο όρο επί δύο δευτερόλεπτα στη διάρκεια μια δίλεπτης συνομιλίας τους, ενώ οι φτωχότεροι δεν έπαιζαν σχεδόν καθόλου.
Οι πλουσιότεροι, για σύντομα διαστήματα, έκαναν κινήσεις περιποίησης στο δικό τους σώμα, ενώ οι φτωχότεροι ποτέ. Οι φτωχότεροι κουνούσαν τα κεφάλια τους, γέλαγαν και σήκωναν τα φρύδια τους για τουλάχιστον δύο δευτερόλεπτα περισσότερο από τους πλουσιότερους.
Σύμφωνα με τους ερευνητές, η διαφορά στη συμπεριφορά έχει τις ρίζες της στο ζωικό μας παρελθόν και αντιστοιχεί στα σήματα που στέλνουν και σήμερα ζώα όπως τα παγώνια, φουντώνοντας τις ουρές τους για να περάσουν μηνύματα του τύπου «δες πόσο ωραίος είμαι»!
Οι πλουσιότεροι άνθρωποι δεν νοιάζονται αν θα γνέφουν με το κεφάλι τους ότι συμφωνούν ή αν θα γίνουν πιο αρεστοί με το να γελάσουν, κάτι που έχουν ανάγκη όμως οι φτωχότεροι που είναι και πιο εξαρτημένοι από τη γνώμη των άλλων.
Η μοναξιά είναι επιβλαβής για την υγεία
Η έλλειψη κοινωνικών σχέσεων με άλλους ανθρώπους όχι μόνο μπορεί να κάνει κάποιον δυστυχισμένο, αλλά επίσης μπορεί να βλάψει τη σωματική και νοητική του υγεία, σύμφωνα με μια νέα επιστημονική έρευνα, που κρούει τον κώδωνα του κινδύνου ότι η μοναξιά μπορεί τελικά να είναι τόσο επιζήμια όσο το κάπνισμα ή η παχυσαρκία.
Η έρευνα του πανεπιστημίου του Σικάγο, υπό τον καθηγητή ψυχολογίας John Cacioppo, η οποία δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό "Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience" (Περιοδικό Γνωσιακής Νευροεπιστήμης) και παρουσιάστηκε στο ετήσιο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ένωσης για την Προώθηση της Επιστήμης, δείχνει ότι η κοινωνική απομόνωση επηρεάζει τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του εγκεφάλου. Είναι η πρώτη έρευνα που χρησιμοποίησε την κλασική πλέον τομογραφία μαγνητικού συντονισμού (fMRI) για να μελετήσει τη σχέση μοναξιάς-εγκεφαλικής δραστηριότητας.
Σύμφωνα με τον ερευνητή, η μοναξιά υποσκάπτει την υγεία και μπορεί να κάνει ίδια ζημιά με το κάπνισμα. Το αίσθημα κοινωνικής απόρριψης ή απομόνωσης αυξάνει την πίεση του αίματος, το επίπεδο του άγχους (η μοναξιά αυξάνει την ορμόνη του στρες κορτιζόλη), εξασθενεί το ανοσοποιητικό σύστημα και αυξάνει τις πιθανότητες εμφάνισης Αλτσχάιμερ, κατάθλιψης και αϋπνίας. Από την άλλη, μειώνει το επίπεδο της θέλησης και επιμονής, επηρεάζοντας έτσι αρνητικά την ικανότητα κάποιου να ακολουθεί ένα υγιεινό στιλ ζωής.
Η μοναξιά, κατά τον Cacioppo, μειώνει γενικά τον έλεγχο που ασκεί κάποιος στη ζωή του και αυτό επηρεάζει αρνητικά την υγεία του. Σύμφωνα με τον ερευνητή, η κοινωνικότητα έχει εξελικτικές ρίζες. Προκειμένου να επιβιώσουν στο απώτατο παρελθόν, οι άνθρωποι αναγκάστηκαν να αναπτύξουν δεσμούς μεταξύ τους για να μεγαλώσουν τα παιδιά τους. Στη συνέχεια, για να προοδεύσουν, χρειάστηκε να αναπτύξουν περαιτέρω το αίσθημα αλτρουισμού και συνεργασίας. Όπως ο φυσικός πόνος λειτουργεί ως σήμα για αλλαγή συμπεριφοράς από τον πάσχοντα, έτσι και και η μοναξιά (κοινωνική απομόνωση), σύμφωνα με αυτό το σκεπτικό, αναπτύχθηκε εξελικτικά ως σήμα για αλλαγή συμπεριφοράς, ώστε να αποκατασταθούν οι κοινωνικοί δεσμοί.
Ο Cacioppo, μαζί με τον καθηγητή ψυχολογίας και ψυχιατρικής Jean Decety, επίσης του πανεπιστημίου του Σικάγο, είναι από τους πρωτεργάτες μιας νέας προσέγγισης της ψυχολογίας, καθώς και της λεγόμενης "κοινωνικής νευροεπιστήμης". Όπως έγραψαν σε άρθρο τους στο περιοδικό "Perspectives on Psychological Science" (Προοπτικές της Ψυχολογικής Επιστήμης), με τον εύγλωττο τίτλο "Ποιοι είναι οι μηχανισμοί του εγκεφάλου στους οποίους βασίζονται οι ψυχολογικές διαδικασίες;", "η επιστήμη του 21ου αιώνα μπορεί και πρέπει να γίνει όχι μόνο η επιστήμη της φανερής συμπεριφοράς ή η επιστήμη του νου, αλλά επίσης η επιστήμη του εγκεφάλου".
Το νέο επιστημονικό ρεύμα, μελετώντας τους εγκεφαλικούς μηχανισμούς και τα κυκλώματα των κυττάρων του εγκεφάλου (νευρώνων), προσπαθεί να βασίσει σε νευρωνικές βάσεις τις ψυχολογικές λειτουργίες, θεωρώντας ότι αποτελεί ουσιαστικά συνέχεια του έργου του Κάρολου Δαρβίνου, που θεωρούσε τον εγκέφαλο προϊόν της εξέλιξης και ότι η ψυχολογία συνεπώς πρέπει να έχει ως θεμέλιο τον εγκέφαλο.
Η έρευνα του πανεπιστημίου του Σικάγο, υπό τον καθηγητή ψυχολογίας John Cacioppo, η οποία δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό "Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience" (Περιοδικό Γνωσιακής Νευροεπιστήμης) και παρουσιάστηκε στο ετήσιο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ένωσης για την Προώθηση της Επιστήμης, δείχνει ότι η κοινωνική απομόνωση επηρεάζει τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του εγκεφάλου. Είναι η πρώτη έρευνα που χρησιμοποίησε την κλασική πλέον τομογραφία μαγνητικού συντονισμού (fMRI) για να μελετήσει τη σχέση μοναξιάς-εγκεφαλικής δραστηριότητας.
Σύμφωνα με τον ερευνητή, η μοναξιά υποσκάπτει την υγεία και μπορεί να κάνει ίδια ζημιά με το κάπνισμα. Το αίσθημα κοινωνικής απόρριψης ή απομόνωσης αυξάνει την πίεση του αίματος, το επίπεδο του άγχους (η μοναξιά αυξάνει την ορμόνη του στρες κορτιζόλη), εξασθενεί το ανοσοποιητικό σύστημα και αυξάνει τις πιθανότητες εμφάνισης Αλτσχάιμερ, κατάθλιψης και αϋπνίας. Από την άλλη, μειώνει το επίπεδο της θέλησης και επιμονής, επηρεάζοντας έτσι αρνητικά την ικανότητα κάποιου να ακολουθεί ένα υγιεινό στιλ ζωής.
Η μοναξιά, κατά τον Cacioppo, μειώνει γενικά τον έλεγχο που ασκεί κάποιος στη ζωή του και αυτό επηρεάζει αρνητικά την υγεία του. Σύμφωνα με τον ερευνητή, η κοινωνικότητα έχει εξελικτικές ρίζες. Προκειμένου να επιβιώσουν στο απώτατο παρελθόν, οι άνθρωποι αναγκάστηκαν να αναπτύξουν δεσμούς μεταξύ τους για να μεγαλώσουν τα παιδιά τους. Στη συνέχεια, για να προοδεύσουν, χρειάστηκε να αναπτύξουν περαιτέρω το αίσθημα αλτρουισμού και συνεργασίας. Όπως ο φυσικός πόνος λειτουργεί ως σήμα για αλλαγή συμπεριφοράς από τον πάσχοντα, έτσι και και η μοναξιά (κοινωνική απομόνωση), σύμφωνα με αυτό το σκεπτικό, αναπτύχθηκε εξελικτικά ως σήμα για αλλαγή συμπεριφοράς, ώστε να αποκατασταθούν οι κοινωνικοί δεσμοί.
Ο Cacioppo, μαζί με τον καθηγητή ψυχολογίας και ψυχιατρικής Jean Decety, επίσης του πανεπιστημίου του Σικάγο, είναι από τους πρωτεργάτες μιας νέας προσέγγισης της ψυχολογίας, καθώς και της λεγόμενης "κοινωνικής νευροεπιστήμης". Όπως έγραψαν σε άρθρο τους στο περιοδικό "Perspectives on Psychological Science" (Προοπτικές της Ψυχολογικής Επιστήμης), με τον εύγλωττο τίτλο "Ποιοι είναι οι μηχανισμοί του εγκεφάλου στους οποίους βασίζονται οι ψυχολογικές διαδικασίες;", "η επιστήμη του 21ου αιώνα μπορεί και πρέπει να γίνει όχι μόνο η επιστήμη της φανερής συμπεριφοράς ή η επιστήμη του νου, αλλά επίσης η επιστήμη του εγκεφάλου".
Το νέο επιστημονικό ρεύμα, μελετώντας τους εγκεφαλικούς μηχανισμούς και τα κυκλώματα των κυττάρων του εγκεφάλου (νευρώνων), προσπαθεί να βασίσει σε νευρωνικές βάσεις τις ψυχολογικές λειτουργίες, θεωρώντας ότι αποτελεί ουσιαστικά συνέχεια του έργου του Κάρολου Δαρβίνου, που θεωρούσε τον εγκέφαλο προϊόν της εξέλιξης και ότι η ψυχολογία συνεπώς πρέπει να έχει ως θεμέλιο τον εγκέφαλο.
Η παιδική κακοποίηση αφήνει γονιδιακό στίγμα στον εγκέφαλο
Η παιδική κακοποίηση δεν προκαλεί μόνο ψυχολογικά προβλήματα, αλλά και μακρόχρονες μεταβολές στον εγκέφαλο γενετικού χαρακτήρα. Μια νέα επιστημονική μελέτη δείχνει ότι στα άτομα που κακοποιήθηκαν σαν παιδιά, ένα γονίδιο που εμπλέκεται στον έλεγχο του στρες, παραμένει τροποποιημένο για δεκαετίες μετά, ένα αποτέλεσμα που είχε ήδη διαπιστωθεί με πειράματα ότι συμβαίνει και σε νεαρούς ποντικούς.
Ο νευροεπιστήμονας, Μάικλ Μίνι και οι συνάδελφοί του στο πανεπιστήμιο ΜακΓκιλ του Μόντρεαλ στον Καναδά, σύγκριναν -μετά θάνατον- τους εγκεφάλους 12 ανδρών που είχαν κακοποιηθεί σαν παιδιά και είχαν αυτοκτονήσει αργότερα, με εγκεφάλους συνομηλίκων τους που είχαν επίσης αυτοκτονήσει, χωρίς όμως να έχουν κακοποιηθεί, όσο και με εγκεφάλους ατόμων που δεν είχαν κακοποιηθεί και είχαν πεθάνει από άλλες αιτίες.
Οι ερευνητές σύγκριναν τμήματα του DNA από την περιοχή του ιππόκαμπου στον εγκέφαλο, όπου βρίσκεται ένα συγκεκριμένο γονίδιο, το οποίο -όπως είχε διαπιστωθεί από τις προηγούμενες έρευνες στους ποντικούς- εμπλέκεται στη ρύθμιση των ορμονών που εκκρίνει ένας οργανισμός λόγω στρες. Η διαπίστωση ήταν ότι -όπως συμβαίνει και στους ποντικούς- ο εγκέφαλος των κακοποιημένων ανδρών έδειχνε τις ίδιες αλλαγές στο γονίδιο αυτό, καθιστώντας το άτομο -όσο ζούσε- λιγότερο ικανό να ελέγξει τις αντιδράσεις του στο στρες. Η γονιδιακή αυτή αλλαγή δεν παρατηρήθηκε στις δύο άλλες ομάδες ατόμων που μελετήθηκαν και οι οποίοι δεν είχαν κακοποιηθεί σαν παιδιά.
Σύμφωνα με τον νευρο-επιστήμονα, Έρικ Νέστλερ, της Ιατρικής Σχολής του Όρους Σινά στη Ν.Υόρκη, η νέα έρευνα είναι σημαντική, γιατί ενισχύει την θεωρία ότι οι λεγόμενες επιγενετικές αλλαγές (δηλαδή οι περιβαλλοντικές επιδράσεις, μετά τη γέννηση, που επηρεάζουν την έκφραση των γονιδίων ενός ατόμου και όχι τις ίδιες τις γενετικές αλληλουχίες του DNA) μπορεί να επηρεάζουν με γονιδιακό τρόπο το νευρικό σύστημα και να επιφέρουν μακροπρόθεσμες αλλαγές της συμπεριφοράς.
Κατά την τελευταία δεκαετία, έχουν συγκεντρωθεί αρκετά επιστημονικά δεδομένα ότι τα κακοποιημένα παιδιά είναι λιγότερο υγιή ως ενήλικες, εμφανίζοντας νοητικά προβλήματα, καρδιοπάθειες, παχυσαρκία, αυτοάνοσα νοσήματα κ.α., και η νέα έρευνα ρίχνει φως στο γιατί αυτό συμβαίνει.
Ο νευροεπιστήμονας, Μάικλ Μίνι και οι συνάδελφοί του στο πανεπιστήμιο ΜακΓκιλ του Μόντρεαλ στον Καναδά, σύγκριναν -μετά θάνατον- τους εγκεφάλους 12 ανδρών που είχαν κακοποιηθεί σαν παιδιά και είχαν αυτοκτονήσει αργότερα, με εγκεφάλους συνομηλίκων τους που είχαν επίσης αυτοκτονήσει, χωρίς όμως να έχουν κακοποιηθεί, όσο και με εγκεφάλους ατόμων που δεν είχαν κακοποιηθεί και είχαν πεθάνει από άλλες αιτίες.
Οι ερευνητές σύγκριναν τμήματα του DNA από την περιοχή του ιππόκαμπου στον εγκέφαλο, όπου βρίσκεται ένα συγκεκριμένο γονίδιο, το οποίο -όπως είχε διαπιστωθεί από τις προηγούμενες έρευνες στους ποντικούς- εμπλέκεται στη ρύθμιση των ορμονών που εκκρίνει ένας οργανισμός λόγω στρες. Η διαπίστωση ήταν ότι -όπως συμβαίνει και στους ποντικούς- ο εγκέφαλος των κακοποιημένων ανδρών έδειχνε τις ίδιες αλλαγές στο γονίδιο αυτό, καθιστώντας το άτομο -όσο ζούσε- λιγότερο ικανό να ελέγξει τις αντιδράσεις του στο στρες. Η γονιδιακή αυτή αλλαγή δεν παρατηρήθηκε στις δύο άλλες ομάδες ατόμων που μελετήθηκαν και οι οποίοι δεν είχαν κακοποιηθεί σαν παιδιά.
Σύμφωνα με τον νευρο-επιστήμονα, Έρικ Νέστλερ, της Ιατρικής Σχολής του Όρους Σινά στη Ν.Υόρκη, η νέα έρευνα είναι σημαντική, γιατί ενισχύει την θεωρία ότι οι λεγόμενες επιγενετικές αλλαγές (δηλαδή οι περιβαλλοντικές επιδράσεις, μετά τη γέννηση, που επηρεάζουν την έκφραση των γονιδίων ενός ατόμου και όχι τις ίδιες τις γενετικές αλληλουχίες του DNA) μπορεί να επηρεάζουν με γονιδιακό τρόπο το νευρικό σύστημα και να επιφέρουν μακροπρόθεσμες αλλαγές της συμπεριφοράς.
Κατά την τελευταία δεκαετία, έχουν συγκεντρωθεί αρκετά επιστημονικά δεδομένα ότι τα κακοποιημένα παιδιά είναι λιγότερο υγιή ως ενήλικες, εμφανίζοντας νοητικά προβλήματα, καρδιοπάθειες, παχυσαρκία, αυτοάνοσα νοσήματα κ.α., και η νέα έρευνα ρίχνει φως στο γιατί αυτό συμβαίνει.
Οι εγκέφαλοι γυναικών και ανδρών αντιδρούν διαφορετικά στην ομορφιά
Οι εγκέφαλοι ανδρών και γυναικών αντιδρούν διαφορετικά στα όμορφα αντικείμενα, όπως οι πίνακες ζωγραφικής, ή στα ωραία τοπία, σύμφωνα με μια νέα νευρο-επιστημονική μελέτη. Οι γυναίκες, όταν βλέπουν κάτι ωραίο, χρησιμοποιούν ένα πολύ μεγαλύτερο μέρος του συνολικού εγκεφάλου τους (και των δύο ημισφαιρίων), ενώ οι άνδρες κυρίως το δεξί ημισφαίριο, κάτι που ξάφνιασε τους ερευνητές.
Ο Φρανσίσκο Αγιάλα του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας-Ιρβάιν και ο Καμίλο Κόντε από το πανεπιστήμιο των Βαλεαρίδων στην Ισπανία, χρησιμοποιώντας την τεχνική της μαγνητοεγκεφαλογραφίας (που μελετά την ηλεκτρική δραστηριότητα του εγκεφάλου), μελέτησαν εγκεφάλους εθελοντών, που κοίταζαν διάφορες εικόνες (όμορφους πίνακες, άσχημες πόλεις, τοπία κ.α.) και βρήκαν σαφείς διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο φύλων στις περιοχές ενεργοποίησης του εγκεφάλου στη θέα του ωραίου.
Η περιοχή που ενεργοποιείται περισσότερο στη θέα της ομορφιάς, είναι ο βρεγματικός λοβός, κοντά στην κορυφή του κεφαλιού, ο οποίος εμπλέκεται στην οπτική αντίληψη, τον προσανατολισμό στον χώρο και την επεξεργασία των πληροφοριών. Στους άνδρες η ενεργοποίηση λαμβάνει χώρα βασικά στο δεξί λοβό, ενώ στις γυναίκες και στις πλευρές.
Μια πιθανή εξήγηση είναι ότι οι εγκέφαλοι των ανδρών και των γυναικών επεξεργάζονται με διαφορετικό τρόπο τις πληροφορίες σε σχέση με το χώρο, κάτι που πιθανώς συμβαίνει μόνο στους ανθρώπους. Οι γυναίκες, όταν βλέπουν ένα αντικείμενο, το συνδέουν με τη γλώσσα κυρίως, ενώ οι άνδρες επικεντρώνονται στη σχέση του με το χώρο - αν και αυτό, όπως παραδέχονται οι ερευνητές, δεν εξηγεί ακριβώς γιατί υπάρχει διαφορά ανάμεσα στα δύο φύλα όσον αφορά την εκτίμηση της ομορφιάς και την "επεξεργασία" της από τον εγκέφαλο.
Σύμφωνα με τους ερευνητές, οι διαφορές αυτές, όσον αφορά τον τρόπο που ο εγκέφαλος επεξεργάζεται τις πληροφορίες από ένα τοπίο ή μια εικόνα που βλέπει, έχουν σχέση με την ανθρώπινη εξέλιξη και ίσως αποτελούν συνέπεια διαφορετικών εξελικτικών πιέσεων στα δύο φύλα, στις πρωτόγονες κοινωνίες των κυνηγών-συλλεκτών. Οι άνδρες, ως κυνηγοί πρωτίστως, ανέπτυξαν "νοητικούς χάρτες", που δίνουν πληροφορίες για την απόσταση, την κατεύθυνση ενός αντικειμένου κλπ., ενώ οι γυναίκες, ως συλλέκτριες τροφής κυρίως, έμαθαν να προσανατολίζονται μέσα από σημάδια-σύμβολα (μια αρχική "γλώσσα").
Σύμφωνα με την έρευνα, "οι διαφορές ανάμεσα στα διακοσμητικά αντικείμενα που βρέθηκαν σε τοποθεσίες Νεάντερταλ και σύγχρονων ανθρώπων, υποστηρίζουν την άποψη υπέρ ενός μοντέρνου εγκεφάλου που είναι ικανός να εκτιμά την ομορφιά και των χρήσεων της, αλλά με διαφορετικό τρόπο (στα δύο φύλα)".
Η έρευνα δημοσιεύτηκε στα "Πρακτικά" της Εθνικής Ακαδημίας Επιστημών των ΗΠΑ (PNAS), σύμφωνα με τα πρακτορεία Reuters και Associated Press και το New Scientist.
Ο Φρανσίσκο Αγιάλα του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας-Ιρβάιν και ο Καμίλο Κόντε από το πανεπιστήμιο των Βαλεαρίδων στην Ισπανία, χρησιμοποιώντας την τεχνική της μαγνητοεγκεφαλογραφίας (που μελετά την ηλεκτρική δραστηριότητα του εγκεφάλου), μελέτησαν εγκεφάλους εθελοντών, που κοίταζαν διάφορες εικόνες (όμορφους πίνακες, άσχημες πόλεις, τοπία κ.α.) και βρήκαν σαφείς διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο φύλων στις περιοχές ενεργοποίησης του εγκεφάλου στη θέα του ωραίου.
Η περιοχή που ενεργοποιείται περισσότερο στη θέα της ομορφιάς, είναι ο βρεγματικός λοβός, κοντά στην κορυφή του κεφαλιού, ο οποίος εμπλέκεται στην οπτική αντίληψη, τον προσανατολισμό στον χώρο και την επεξεργασία των πληροφοριών. Στους άνδρες η ενεργοποίηση λαμβάνει χώρα βασικά στο δεξί λοβό, ενώ στις γυναίκες και στις πλευρές.
Μια πιθανή εξήγηση είναι ότι οι εγκέφαλοι των ανδρών και των γυναικών επεξεργάζονται με διαφορετικό τρόπο τις πληροφορίες σε σχέση με το χώρο, κάτι που πιθανώς συμβαίνει μόνο στους ανθρώπους. Οι γυναίκες, όταν βλέπουν ένα αντικείμενο, το συνδέουν με τη γλώσσα κυρίως, ενώ οι άνδρες επικεντρώνονται στη σχέση του με το χώρο - αν και αυτό, όπως παραδέχονται οι ερευνητές, δεν εξηγεί ακριβώς γιατί υπάρχει διαφορά ανάμεσα στα δύο φύλα όσον αφορά την εκτίμηση της ομορφιάς και την "επεξεργασία" της από τον εγκέφαλο.
Σύμφωνα με τους ερευνητές, οι διαφορές αυτές, όσον αφορά τον τρόπο που ο εγκέφαλος επεξεργάζεται τις πληροφορίες από ένα τοπίο ή μια εικόνα που βλέπει, έχουν σχέση με την ανθρώπινη εξέλιξη και ίσως αποτελούν συνέπεια διαφορετικών εξελικτικών πιέσεων στα δύο φύλα, στις πρωτόγονες κοινωνίες των κυνηγών-συλλεκτών. Οι άνδρες, ως κυνηγοί πρωτίστως, ανέπτυξαν "νοητικούς χάρτες", που δίνουν πληροφορίες για την απόσταση, την κατεύθυνση ενός αντικειμένου κλπ., ενώ οι γυναίκες, ως συλλέκτριες τροφής κυρίως, έμαθαν να προσανατολίζονται μέσα από σημάδια-σύμβολα (μια αρχική "γλώσσα").
Σύμφωνα με την έρευνα, "οι διαφορές ανάμεσα στα διακοσμητικά αντικείμενα που βρέθηκαν σε τοποθεσίες Νεάντερταλ και σύγχρονων ανθρώπων, υποστηρίζουν την άποψη υπέρ ενός μοντέρνου εγκεφάλου που είναι ικανός να εκτιμά την ομορφιά και των χρήσεων της, αλλά με διαφορετικό τρόπο (στα δύο φύλα)".
Η έρευνα δημοσιεύτηκε στα "Πρακτικά" της Εθνικής Ακαδημίας Επιστημών των ΗΠΑ (PNAS), σύμφωνα με τα πρακτορεία Reuters και Associated Press και το New Scientist.
Feb 19, 2009
Loneliness Affects How The Brain Operates
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2009) — Social isolation affects how people behave as well as how their brains operate, a study at the University of Chicago shows.
The research, presented February 15 at a symposium, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain. Combining fMRI scans with data relevant to social behavior is part of an emerging field examining brain mechanisms—an approach to psychology being pioneered at the University of Chicago.
Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.
"Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards," said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.
The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.
Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation's leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.
They were among five co-authors of a paper, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in Perceived Social Isolation Predict Regional Brain Activation to Social Stimuli," published in the current issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
In the study, 23 female undergraduates were tested to determine their level of loneliness. While in an fMRI scanner, the subjects were shown unpleasant pictures and human conflict as well as pleasant things such as money and happy people.
The subjects who rated as lonely were least likely to have strong activity in their ventral striata when shown pictures of people enjoying themselves.
Although loneliness may be influence brain activity, the research also suggests that activity in the ventral striatum may prompt feelings of loneliness, Decety said. "The study raises the intriguing possibility that loneliness may result from reduced reward-related activity in the ventral striatum in response to social rewards."
In addition to differing responses in the ventral striatum, the subjects also recorded differing responses in parts of the brain that indicated loneliness played a role in how their brain operates.
Joining Decety and Cacioppo in writing the Journal of Cognitive Science paper were Catherine Norris, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College; George Monteleone, a graduate student at the University of Chicago; and Howard Nusbaum, Chair of Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Decety and Cacioppo discussed the new field of brain mechanism in a paper in the current issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science. The new field extends the work of Charles Darwin, who "regarded the brain as a product of evolution and the science of psychology as concerned with these foundations," they wrote.
By studying brain mechanisms, researchers hope to gain new insights by examining mental activities surrounding consciousness, perception and thought through an understanding of how columns of neurons stacked next to each other form elementary circuits to function as a unit, they wrote.
New visualization tools such as three-dimensional imaging will help scholars develop a new way of studying psychology, they said.
"Psychological science in the 21st century can, and should, become not only the science of overt behavior, and not only the science of the mind, but also the science of the brain," they concluded.
The research, presented February 15 at a symposium, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain. Combining fMRI scans with data relevant to social behavior is part of an emerging field examining brain mechanisms—an approach to psychology being pioneered at the University of Chicago.
Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.
"Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards," said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.
The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.
Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation's leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.
They were among five co-authors of a paper, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in Perceived Social Isolation Predict Regional Brain Activation to Social Stimuli," published in the current issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
In the study, 23 female undergraduates were tested to determine their level of loneliness. While in an fMRI scanner, the subjects were shown unpleasant pictures and human conflict as well as pleasant things such as money and happy people.
The subjects who rated as lonely were least likely to have strong activity in their ventral striata when shown pictures of people enjoying themselves.
Although loneliness may be influence brain activity, the research also suggests that activity in the ventral striatum may prompt feelings of loneliness, Decety said. "The study raises the intriguing possibility that loneliness may result from reduced reward-related activity in the ventral striatum in response to social rewards."
In addition to differing responses in the ventral striatum, the subjects also recorded differing responses in parts of the brain that indicated loneliness played a role in how their brain operates.
Joining Decety and Cacioppo in writing the Journal of Cognitive Science paper were Catherine Norris, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College; George Monteleone, a graduate student at the University of Chicago; and Howard Nusbaum, Chair of Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Decety and Cacioppo discussed the new field of brain mechanism in a paper in the current issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science. The new field extends the work of Charles Darwin, who "regarded the brain as a product of evolution and the science of psychology as concerned with these foundations," they wrote.
By studying brain mechanisms, researchers hope to gain new insights by examining mental activities surrounding consciousness, perception and thought through an understanding of how columns of neurons stacked next to each other form elementary circuits to function as a unit, they wrote.
New visualization tools such as three-dimensional imaging will help scholars develop a new way of studying psychology, they said.
"Psychological science in the 21st century can, and should, become not only the science of overt behavior, and not only the science of the mind, but also the science of the brain," they concluded.
Feb 18, 2009
The Real Laws of Attraction
A new study reveals a surprising gap between what men and women say they want in a partner and what they actually choose.
Karen Springen
Newsweek Web Exclusive
We've all heard the adage: Men want a beautiful partner, while women want a guy who can bring home the bacon. But is it true?
In the new issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Northwestern University social psychologists Eli Finkel and Paul Eastwick report that both genders initially place the greatest value on physical attractiveness, followed by personality and then earning potential.
To find out more about how we choose our mates and dates, Finkel and Eastwick invited 163 undergraduate college students to a two-hour speed-dating event. Each student spent four minutes with a dozen potential partners—and then looked at their photographs on a computer, and answered yes or no to indicate whether they'd like a date. The participants then rated their choices, based on who they found most attractive and who they thought would have the greatest earning potential. Finkel and Eastwick followed the students for a month to check on their subsequent romantic activities.
NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen spoke with Finkel and Eastwick about their research in the Northwestern Relationships Lab and about how men and women may be rethinking old questions about what they want in a mate. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Before you held your speed-dating event, you had participants state how much appearance, personality and earning potential would matter in deciding whether they wanted to see someone again. More women said earning prospects were important in an ideal romantic partner, and more men said beauty. But that's not what they ended up valuing in real life, right?
Finkel: There was a disconnect between what they said they wanted and what they actually wanted. Physical attractiveness tends to inspire desire a lot. Earning prospects tend to inspire desire a moderate amount [for both men and women].
Why do many men and women have the wrong idea about what they really value in a romantic partner?
Finkel: We all live in a culture where we're bathed in this idea that women are more interested in earning potential than men are. So when we're asked what is it we desire, we say, I'm a man—I'm more interested in beauty. That's what's sensible to them in the absence of doing a careful analysis of everyone they've ever been attracted to.
Eastwick: Men and women haven't sat down and looked at all the available evidence on all the people they've been attracted to over the course of their lives and come up with a comprehensive answer. People have theories, and those theories guide us, but they might not always be correct.
How does speed dating help you figure out what men and women want in a partner?
Finkel: Speed dating allows you to examine each person's preference across a range of potential suitors. We can look not only at what you said you preferred 10 days before the event but what you actually preferred when you met living, breathing beings. We can compare what you said was important to you and what actually was important to you.
What's the take-home message for people looking for love?
Finkel: Beware the shopping list. When you go into finding a romantic partner, don't have this list of necessary characteristics that you need. Go in with an open mind. Actually meet people face to face. Because you might find yourself surprised by the person you're attracted to. Those sex differences and mate preferences that are so reliable when people report on hypothetical ideal partners disappear when people meet living, breathing partners.
So personality really matters, too?
Finkel: It's not that looks don't matter, or earning potential doesn't matter, or personality doesn't matter. It's that they matter equally strongly for men and women. Looks are most important, personality is second and earning potential is third—at least in the first month of dating.
And that's good news, right?
Finkel: It's good news with regard to earning prospects and bad news with regard to looks!
So what's the verdict on beauty vs. brains?
Finkel: It might be that men and women don't differ in how much looks matter in initial attraction. We are running a study now, in collaboration with a speed-dating company, with 6,500 people who were single at the time. Now three years later, we're following up to see whether they got married and did that person match. What we'll be able to do is see if their stated ideals three years ago actually match with the person they're marrying.
Eastwick: My hunch is that their ideals changed, not that they found the person who matched their original ideals.
The other dating adage is that attractive people get extra benefits in life and may just marry other attractive people, who earn more money. Right?
Eastwick: Attractive women are marrying attractive husbands, and attractive people make more money because attractive people get more of everything in life.
Did you actually get some love matches in the course of your study?
Eastwick: We did create several couples. I don't know if any of those couples are still around today. When we like to brag about the effectiveness of speed dating, we will talk about figures like one third of our speed daters in the month following the event spent at least some time hanging out with somebody they hadn't known prior to the event.
How did you find the participants?
Eastwick: We always collaborate with student groups. We had to turn away hundreds and hundreds of people.
So lots of students wanted to do their part for research and science?
Eastwick: They'll date for science, yes!
Finkel: We have videotapes of the dates this time. It's funny how frequently people will say things like, "This is kind of goofy, but I'm happy to do it. It's for a study."
Are you married?
Finkel: I am engaged, and Paul is in a serious relationship.
Did you ever meet anyone through speed dating?
Finkel: We did as a class field trip go speed dating four years ago. It was fun. Basically everybody Paul met said yes to him. I ended up dating someone.
Karen Springen
Newsweek Web Exclusive
We've all heard the adage: Men want a beautiful partner, while women want a guy who can bring home the bacon. But is it true?
In the new issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Northwestern University social psychologists Eli Finkel and Paul Eastwick report that both genders initially place the greatest value on physical attractiveness, followed by personality and then earning potential.
To find out more about how we choose our mates and dates, Finkel and Eastwick invited 163 undergraduate college students to a two-hour speed-dating event. Each student spent four minutes with a dozen potential partners—and then looked at their photographs on a computer, and answered yes or no to indicate whether they'd like a date. The participants then rated their choices, based on who they found most attractive and who they thought would have the greatest earning potential. Finkel and Eastwick followed the students for a month to check on their subsequent romantic activities.
NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen spoke with Finkel and Eastwick about their research in the Northwestern Relationships Lab and about how men and women may be rethinking old questions about what they want in a mate. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Before you held your speed-dating event, you had participants state how much appearance, personality and earning potential would matter in deciding whether they wanted to see someone again. More women said earning prospects were important in an ideal romantic partner, and more men said beauty. But that's not what they ended up valuing in real life, right?
Finkel: There was a disconnect between what they said they wanted and what they actually wanted. Physical attractiveness tends to inspire desire a lot. Earning prospects tend to inspire desire a moderate amount [for both men and women].
Why do many men and women have the wrong idea about what they really value in a romantic partner?
Finkel: We all live in a culture where we're bathed in this idea that women are more interested in earning potential than men are. So when we're asked what is it we desire, we say, I'm a man—I'm more interested in beauty. That's what's sensible to them in the absence of doing a careful analysis of everyone they've ever been attracted to.
Eastwick: Men and women haven't sat down and looked at all the available evidence on all the people they've been attracted to over the course of their lives and come up with a comprehensive answer. People have theories, and those theories guide us, but they might not always be correct.
How does speed dating help you figure out what men and women want in a partner?
Finkel: Speed dating allows you to examine each person's preference across a range of potential suitors. We can look not only at what you said you preferred 10 days before the event but what you actually preferred when you met living, breathing beings. We can compare what you said was important to you and what actually was important to you.
What's the take-home message for people looking for love?
Finkel: Beware the shopping list. When you go into finding a romantic partner, don't have this list of necessary characteristics that you need. Go in with an open mind. Actually meet people face to face. Because you might find yourself surprised by the person you're attracted to. Those sex differences and mate preferences that are so reliable when people report on hypothetical ideal partners disappear when people meet living, breathing partners.
So personality really matters, too?
Finkel: It's not that looks don't matter, or earning potential doesn't matter, or personality doesn't matter. It's that they matter equally strongly for men and women. Looks are most important, personality is second and earning potential is third—at least in the first month of dating.
And that's good news, right?
Finkel: It's good news with regard to earning prospects and bad news with regard to looks!
So what's the verdict on beauty vs. brains?
Finkel: It might be that men and women don't differ in how much looks matter in initial attraction. We are running a study now, in collaboration with a speed-dating company, with 6,500 people who were single at the time. Now three years later, we're following up to see whether they got married and did that person match. What we'll be able to do is see if their stated ideals three years ago actually match with the person they're marrying.
Eastwick: My hunch is that their ideals changed, not that they found the person who matched their original ideals.
The other dating adage is that attractive people get extra benefits in life and may just marry other attractive people, who earn more money. Right?
Eastwick: Attractive women are marrying attractive husbands, and attractive people make more money because attractive people get more of everything in life.
Did you actually get some love matches in the course of your study?
Eastwick: We did create several couples. I don't know if any of those couples are still around today. When we like to brag about the effectiveness of speed dating, we will talk about figures like one third of our speed daters in the month following the event spent at least some time hanging out with somebody they hadn't known prior to the event.
How did you find the participants?
Eastwick: We always collaborate with student groups. We had to turn away hundreds and hundreds of people.
So lots of students wanted to do their part for research and science?
Eastwick: They'll date for science, yes!
Finkel: We have videotapes of the dates this time. It's funny how frequently people will say things like, "This is kind of goofy, but I'm happy to do it. It's for a study."
Are you married?
Finkel: I am engaged, and Paul is in a serious relationship.
Did you ever meet anyone through speed dating?
Finkel: We did as a class field trip go speed dating four years ago. It was fun. Basically everybody Paul met said yes to him. I ended up dating someone.
Varying Sweat Scents Are Noted by Women
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: February 16, 2009
Men’s sweat smells different when they are sexually aroused, and women can tell the difference, a new study finds — even though they are not conscious of it.
The sexual activity of animals is affected by odor, but little is known about the phenomenon in humans. Although all three types of sweat glands respond to emotion and sexual arousal, no one has ever convincingly established that body odor plays a significant role in human sexual relations or reproduction.
“In surveys, people say that body odors are important in selecting a mate,” said Denise Chen, the lead author of the study. “But we don’t really know exactly what role body odors play in human sexuality.”
The report, published in the January issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that women distinguish the odor of sexual sweat from neutral sweat by processing the odors in different parts of the brain.
The researchers had 20 heterosexual male volunteers hold absorbent pads in their armpits while they watched 20 minutes of an erotic film, and then again while they watched a 20-minute film with neutral content. Then they had 19 heterosexual women smell the sexual sweat and neutral sweat pads from the three men who reported the highest level of sexual arousal.
The women also sniffed two additional pads, one moistened with androstadienone, a hormone produced naturally in sweat that some believe is a sex pheromone, and the other a control pad with a slight neutral odor. The pads were presented randomly, and the women were asked to rate the pleasantness and intensity of the odors. While the women sniffed, researchers monitored their brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Adam K. Anderson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study, called the methodology impressive.
“What’s being taken as a stimulus is not some chemical created in a lab — it’s real sweat from people who are sexually aroused,” said Dr. Anderson, who does research in human olfaction. “What a scientist would normally do is try to distill the active component of that very complex perfume. They didn’t do that. They compared the complex sweat to the sex pheromone and found that the brain was much more responsive.”
In their verbal responses, all but two subjects denied smelling any sweat, or anything human, and none verbally distinguished the sexual from the neutral sweat. But their brain activity told a different story.
Two regions of the brain, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right fusiform region, responded significantly more to the sexual sweat of men than to any of the other smells.
Dr. Chen, an assistant professor of psychology at Rice University, said that only one brain area, the hypothalamus, is known to be important in sexual motivation and behavior, and that region did not respond to the odors. But the researchers did find that the brain somehow recognizes social or emotional information contained in sexual sweat, treating it differently from other odors. In this sense, they conclude, humans communicate with smell.
No man should imagine that based on these conclusions he can improve his sex life by refraining from bathing.
“Our findings do not convey the suggestion that human sweat is an aphrodisiac,” Dr. Chen wrote in an e-mail message.
So what does the scent of a man mean to a woman? Dr. Anderson suggested there was no reason to conclude that men now know what women want. “They didn’t find activations of typical reward centers or regions associated with pleasure,” he said. “It’s just as likely that their brains are picking up a man in heat that they are not particularly attracted to.”
Published: February 16, 2009
Men’s sweat smells different when they are sexually aroused, and women can tell the difference, a new study finds — even though they are not conscious of it.
The sexual activity of animals is affected by odor, but little is known about the phenomenon in humans. Although all three types of sweat glands respond to emotion and sexual arousal, no one has ever convincingly established that body odor plays a significant role in human sexual relations or reproduction.
“In surveys, people say that body odors are important in selecting a mate,” said Denise Chen, the lead author of the study. “But we don’t really know exactly what role body odors play in human sexuality.”
The report, published in the January issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that women distinguish the odor of sexual sweat from neutral sweat by processing the odors in different parts of the brain.
The researchers had 20 heterosexual male volunteers hold absorbent pads in their armpits while they watched 20 minutes of an erotic film, and then again while they watched a 20-minute film with neutral content. Then they had 19 heterosexual women smell the sexual sweat and neutral sweat pads from the three men who reported the highest level of sexual arousal.
The women also sniffed two additional pads, one moistened with androstadienone, a hormone produced naturally in sweat that some believe is a sex pheromone, and the other a control pad with a slight neutral odor. The pads were presented randomly, and the women were asked to rate the pleasantness and intensity of the odors. While the women sniffed, researchers monitored their brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Adam K. Anderson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study, called the methodology impressive.
“What’s being taken as a stimulus is not some chemical created in a lab — it’s real sweat from people who are sexually aroused,” said Dr. Anderson, who does research in human olfaction. “What a scientist would normally do is try to distill the active component of that very complex perfume. They didn’t do that. They compared the complex sweat to the sex pheromone and found that the brain was much more responsive.”
In their verbal responses, all but two subjects denied smelling any sweat, or anything human, and none verbally distinguished the sexual from the neutral sweat. But their brain activity told a different story.
Two regions of the brain, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right fusiform region, responded significantly more to the sexual sweat of men than to any of the other smells.
Dr. Chen, an assistant professor of psychology at Rice University, said that only one brain area, the hypothalamus, is known to be important in sexual motivation and behavior, and that region did not respond to the odors. But the researchers did find that the brain somehow recognizes social or emotional information contained in sexual sweat, treating it differently from other odors. In this sense, they conclude, humans communicate with smell.
No man should imagine that based on these conclusions he can improve his sex life by refraining from bathing.
“Our findings do not convey the suggestion that human sweat is an aphrodisiac,” Dr. Chen wrote in an e-mail message.
So what does the scent of a man mean to a woman? Dr. Anderson suggested there was no reason to conclude that men now know what women want. “They didn’t find activations of typical reward centers or regions associated with pleasure,” he said. “It’s just as likely that their brains are picking up a man in heat that they are not particularly attracted to.”
The Dating Go Round
Speed dating offers scientists a peek at how romance actually blossoms
By Bruce Bower
February 14th, 2009
Dating is hell. It’s a tiptoe traipse on a high wire strung across the Grand Canyon. One wrong move and you’re in free fall, tumbling crazily toward a final goodnight. It’s no accident that single adults laugh and commiserate over dating horror stories. Tales of dating bliss just don’t cut it at the watercooler.
Dating can also be a monumental chore. All too often, someone who seems cute and funny chatting in line at the coffee shop turns into a date from — well, you know.
Enter Rabbi Yaacov Deyo. He is generally credited with inventing speed dating in 1998 to help Jewish singles in Los Angeles meet each other. Deyo gave people literally looking for love a way to cut to the chase and perhaps even avoid catastrophic spills.
In the past decade, speed dating has spread. No major metropolitan area in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia or Canada lacks speed dating opportunities. Entrepreneurs now run events for speed networking, speed interviewing and speed friending. About a dozen speed dating companies have emerged as major players in the United States. That doesn’t include, though, specialty operations geared toward arranging meetings between members of particular groups, such as Christians or gays.
Even psychologists have gotten into the act, for purely scientific reasons. Without intending to, Deyo devised a way to study real-life romantic attraction and relationship formation. That’s no small feat — couples who have just met and started dating are usually in no mood to be scrutinized by nosy researchers.
At a typical speed dating event, the romantically inclined pay a fee to go on a series of brief “dates” with potential partners. Men sit across from women, and the pairs of speed daters talk for no more than eight minutes. Each man then moves and sits across from another woman. This process continues until all the men and women have had brief conversations.
Afterward, speed daters describe on a questionnaire or a website which people they would or would not want to meet again. If two participants express interest in each other, the host of the event provides them with contact information so that the pair can chat further or arrange a traditional date.
For the past 40 years, attempts to discern how relationships get off the ground have largely relied on questionnaires and laboratory tasks that probe for qualities people value in prospective dates and mates. “There’s a big difference between evaluating people’s dating preferences on paper and evaluating living, breathing potential partners,” says psychologist Eli Finkel of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
New speed dating research indicates that men and women in fledgling relationships anxiously long for an emotional bond with each other, even if it takes years for such a connection to form. This gut-wrenching reaction may draw couples together with the same pull as mutual sexual desire.
Speed dating investigations also illuminate a considerable gap between what people say they’re looking for in a romantic partner and traits of the people they actually want to go out with. Some evidence raises doubts about whether men value women’s physical attractiveness and whether women cherish men’s financial prospects to the degree that questionnaire responses would suggest.
Other findings hint that, for good evolutionary reasons, female speed daters become more choosy as they meet larger numbers of potential dates. Evolution may also lie behind women’s tendency to mask their romantic intentions more than men do. Intriguingly, though, during speed dating, women’s dating palates become much less discriminating if they move from one man to the next, rather than waiting for men to approach them.
No other available research method could yield such findings, remarks psychologist Lisa Diamond of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “It cracks me up that speed dating was invented by a rabbi because it seems like it was designed by a psychologist,” Diamond says.
Worried love
The late psychologist Dorothy Tennov studied love more than 30 years ago, well before the advent of speed dating. After interviewing thousands of people, she concluded that romantic passion feeds off a mix of hope and uncertainty. Love grows out of opposing beliefs that the other person reciprocates one’s feelings but, at the same time, may not really be as interested as he or she seems, Tennov proposed.
A speed dating study conducted by Finkel and Northwestern University psychologist Paul Eastwick supports Tennov’s view. Worries about desired partners’ underlying romantic feelings flare up in many people — and it is this worry that motivates pursuit of the relationship, Eastwick and Finkel say. Anxiety toward a love interest, combined with hope that one’s feelings will be returned, triggers the same attachment system that forges emotional bonds between children and their parents, Eastwick and Finkel conclude in the September Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
“We see an embryonic stage of the attachment process as soon as a person develops a romantic attraction to someone else,” Finkel says. Scientists have usually assumed that mutual sexual desire largely motivates people to pair up in the first place, with attachment bonds forming only after at least two years together.
Eastwick and Finkel conducted seven speed dating events for college students, 81 women and 82 men. After an event, students used a website the researchers set up to both view and communicate with matches. For one month after a speed dating session, students visited the website every three days and completed relationship-related questionnaires.
In particular, the scientists tracked what they call partner-specific attachment anxiety. Volunteers scored high on this measure by affirming statements such as, “I need a lot of reassurance that [partner’s name] cares about me” and “I worry that [partner’s name] doesn’t care about me as much as I care about him/her.”
This uncertainty kept people interested. Participants were far more likely to date someone and to stay romantically focused on that person if they thought he or she liked them, but only if at the same time those participants experienced constant twinges of attachment anxiety.
These conflicting responses are precariously balanced in budding relationships, Eastwick says. One couple stopped dating after a couple of weeks because one person felt insufficiently desired by the other. Another breakup occurred after one person’s attachment anxiety toward the other had declined sharply for more than a week. In that case, one dater may have lost interest in another whose romantic intentions were no longer in doubt, Eastwick suggests.
For one couple that dated casually throughout the follow-up period, each person’s feelings of desirability and attachment anxiety ebbed and flowed, but both reactions were always present.
Fledgling daters who experienced attachment anxiety reported far more interest in forming a serious relationship than in having a one-night stand. People with troubled backgrounds, who generally felt anxious about their standing in any close relationship, usually didn’t contact their speed dating matches.
But for the vast majority of daters, partner-specific attachment anxiety accompanies romantic attraction and imbues unrequited love with its signature sense of wretched despair, the researchers suggest.
Some researchers believe that worries stirred up by budding relationships should not be called attachment anxiety, since actual, traditional attachment bonds have yet to form.
Eastwick demurs. “It is almost as if a central component of passionate love is the fantasy that one will ultimately possess an attachment bond with the desired partner,” he says.
Feminine mystique
Evolution-minded psychologists regard women as more likely than men to want a committed relationship and to feel anxious about getting one. Because women have, since the dawn of humanity, faced much greater pressure to raise children, they have evolved to behave relatively cautiously and coyly with potential mates, according to these researchers. This tactic improves a woman’s chances of weeding out the users and the losers.
Men, on the other hand, are more apt than women to pursue short-term sexual relationships with many partners. Physical signs of a woman’s youth and beauty initially stand out for men. This perspective suggests that it is only after deciding to seek a long-term mate that men look beyond women’s surface qualities.
Consider a 2005 analysis of speed dating data, by psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Men tended to choose to have further contact with every other woman they met. Women only wanted to meet again with one in three men.
Related evidence comes from a speed dating study in the January Psychological Science. Psychologist Peter Todd of Indiana University in Bloomington and his coworkers found that observers of speed dating encounters are moderately good at picking out who later expresses romantic interest in whom, with women being harder to read than men.
In Todd’s investigation, 28 female and 26 male college students who don’t speak German watched video clips of 24 speed dating interactions among German young adults. Clips lasted either 10 or 30 seconds and featured different parts of each speed date.
Observers correctly judged others’ romantic interest in a partner about 60 percent of the time, a good but not great accuracy rate. “Some people hid their true intentions in this dating context, especially females,” Todd says.
The true feelings of the female speed daters were harder to identify in general, and five women were nearly impossible for observers of either sex to figure out.
Observers judged speed daters’ intentions best when viewing clips taken from the latter parts of encounters. Speed daters must have gathered information about each other throughout their brief interactions, making their intentions easier to read toward the end, Todd suggests. If so, then partners evaluate much more than each others’ physical attractiveness during the few minutes of a speed date.
Nonetheless, men being men, they still focus on what women look like, even if unwilling to come right out and admit it. In a 2007 speed dating study, Todd and colleagues found that men and women alike said beforehand that their ideal mate possessed all sorts of physical and personal attributes that reminded them of their own. Yet men’s choices of which women to contact after speed dates were, by admission on later questionnaires, based mostly on physical attractiveness.
Women were again the choosier sex. And each woman used judgments of her own physical allure to pick a few men having comparable desirability, based on a woman’s perceptions of each man’s wealth, status, family commitment, physical appearance and health. In other words, a woman’s opinion of her own physical beauty determined what she aspired to in a partner. Women’s self-perceived beauty lay behind their determinations of which men were good prospects.
Women become especially choosy given a large pool of prospects, picking only a few men ranked highly by nearly all female daters, Todd’s group reports in January in Animal Behaviour.
Females in many nonhuman animal species do just the opposite, expanding their mating choices when faced with plentiful male options. In those situations, high-ranking males find it more difficult to control low-ranking males’ access to fertile females.
Speed daters play the mating game in a peculiarly human way, Todd proposes. Given only a handful of choices, women get less picky because they can evaluate many characteristics of each potential date. But faced with 20 or 30 alternatives, it’s possible to track only a few obvious clues for each man, such as facial appearance and body type, narrowing the woman’s pool of choices.
Moving attractions
There’s a simple and until now unexplored way to get female speed daters to lower their romantic standards, according to Finkel. Just have them move from one man to the next, rather than waiting for each man to approach them, as is the practice at virtually all speed dating events. “The mere act of physically approaching a potential romantic partner increases one’s attraction to that person,” Finkel says.
Finkel and Eastwick describe this phenomenon in a paper to be submitted for publication. Related research has already shown that individuals tend to feel more positively toward objects or people that they physically approach, versus those viewed from a stationary position.
At 15 speed dating events organized by the Northwestern University researchers, either men or women rotated from one partner to the next while the other sex remained seated.
When men approached and women sat, men reported far more romantic desire for their various partners than women did. Men also cited greater romantic chemistry with partners, relative to the seated women, and picked larger numbers of speed dating partners for further contact. But when women approached and men sat, the number of people men and women wanted to date was about the same.
Men are generally expected, if not required, to approach women in most situations that offer romantic opportunities, Finkel notes. This subtle social expectation may substantially explain why women are choosier daters than men.
In a related 2008 study, Finkel and Eastwick found no differences between male and female speed daters’ tendencies to favor partners with good looks or promising careers. Yet on questionnaires, the men had described a preference for physically attractive dates and women had emphasized a search for guys with good earning prospects.
“Purported sex differences in mating strategies have been touted as part of our evolved legacy, but that’s a vastly oversimplified view,” Utah’s Diamond says.
Todd disagrees. Until other researchers confirm that women become less selective when told to approach prospective dates, he reserves judgment on Finkel and Eastwick’s new study. The Northwestern researchers study college-aged daters, who may not exhibit clear sex differences in dating preferences because most seek short-term relationships, Todd notes.
His own speed dating studies include 20- to 50-year-olds. Todd regards members of this age group as the best bets for seeking a committed partner and showing sex-specific mating strategies.
However evolutionary scenarios pan out, speed dating offers an efficient tool for studying real-life love connections, remarks Columbia University economist Raymond Fisman. Dating websites and census data on marriages offer other avenues for such research.
These research approaches can help answer other questions about love, such as why some people experience no qualms about interracial dating while others do. Last year, a team led by Fisman reported that prevailing racial attitudes and racial diversity in people’s home regions strongly influence their willingness to contact speed dating partners of other races. Fisman now investigates people’s attitudes about organizational and corporate corruption. When considering either corruption or dating, he says, it’s important to remember that people often lie both to themselves and others about their underlying motives. “We all tell ourselves comforting stories,” Fisman observes.
By Bruce Bower
February 14th, 2009
Dating is hell. It’s a tiptoe traipse on a high wire strung across the Grand Canyon. One wrong move and you’re in free fall, tumbling crazily toward a final goodnight. It’s no accident that single adults laugh and commiserate over dating horror stories. Tales of dating bliss just don’t cut it at the watercooler.
Dating can also be a monumental chore. All too often, someone who seems cute and funny chatting in line at the coffee shop turns into a date from — well, you know.
Enter Rabbi Yaacov Deyo. He is generally credited with inventing speed dating in 1998 to help Jewish singles in Los Angeles meet each other. Deyo gave people literally looking for love a way to cut to the chase and perhaps even avoid catastrophic spills.
In the past decade, speed dating has spread. No major metropolitan area in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia or Canada lacks speed dating opportunities. Entrepreneurs now run events for speed networking, speed interviewing and speed friending. About a dozen speed dating companies have emerged as major players in the United States. That doesn’t include, though, specialty operations geared toward arranging meetings between members of particular groups, such as Christians or gays.
Even psychologists have gotten into the act, for purely scientific reasons. Without intending to, Deyo devised a way to study real-life romantic attraction and relationship formation. That’s no small feat — couples who have just met and started dating are usually in no mood to be scrutinized by nosy researchers.
At a typical speed dating event, the romantically inclined pay a fee to go on a series of brief “dates” with potential partners. Men sit across from women, and the pairs of speed daters talk for no more than eight minutes. Each man then moves and sits across from another woman. This process continues until all the men and women have had brief conversations.
Afterward, speed daters describe on a questionnaire or a website which people they would or would not want to meet again. If two participants express interest in each other, the host of the event provides them with contact information so that the pair can chat further or arrange a traditional date.
For the past 40 years, attempts to discern how relationships get off the ground have largely relied on questionnaires and laboratory tasks that probe for qualities people value in prospective dates and mates. “There’s a big difference between evaluating people’s dating preferences on paper and evaluating living, breathing potential partners,” says psychologist Eli Finkel of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
New speed dating research indicates that men and women in fledgling relationships anxiously long for an emotional bond with each other, even if it takes years for such a connection to form. This gut-wrenching reaction may draw couples together with the same pull as mutual sexual desire.
Speed dating investigations also illuminate a considerable gap between what people say they’re looking for in a romantic partner and traits of the people they actually want to go out with. Some evidence raises doubts about whether men value women’s physical attractiveness and whether women cherish men’s financial prospects to the degree that questionnaire responses would suggest.
Other findings hint that, for good evolutionary reasons, female speed daters become more choosy as they meet larger numbers of potential dates. Evolution may also lie behind women’s tendency to mask their romantic intentions more than men do. Intriguingly, though, during speed dating, women’s dating palates become much less discriminating if they move from one man to the next, rather than waiting for men to approach them.
No other available research method could yield such findings, remarks psychologist Lisa Diamond of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “It cracks me up that speed dating was invented by a rabbi because it seems like it was designed by a psychologist,” Diamond says.
Worried love
The late psychologist Dorothy Tennov studied love more than 30 years ago, well before the advent of speed dating. After interviewing thousands of people, she concluded that romantic passion feeds off a mix of hope and uncertainty. Love grows out of opposing beliefs that the other person reciprocates one’s feelings but, at the same time, may not really be as interested as he or she seems, Tennov proposed.
A speed dating study conducted by Finkel and Northwestern University psychologist Paul Eastwick supports Tennov’s view. Worries about desired partners’ underlying romantic feelings flare up in many people — and it is this worry that motivates pursuit of the relationship, Eastwick and Finkel say. Anxiety toward a love interest, combined with hope that one’s feelings will be returned, triggers the same attachment system that forges emotional bonds between children and their parents, Eastwick and Finkel conclude in the September Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
“We see an embryonic stage of the attachment process as soon as a person develops a romantic attraction to someone else,” Finkel says. Scientists have usually assumed that mutual sexual desire largely motivates people to pair up in the first place, with attachment bonds forming only after at least two years together.
Eastwick and Finkel conducted seven speed dating events for college students, 81 women and 82 men. After an event, students used a website the researchers set up to both view and communicate with matches. For one month after a speed dating session, students visited the website every three days and completed relationship-related questionnaires.
In particular, the scientists tracked what they call partner-specific attachment anxiety. Volunteers scored high on this measure by affirming statements such as, “I need a lot of reassurance that [partner’s name] cares about me” and “I worry that [partner’s name] doesn’t care about me as much as I care about him/her.”
This uncertainty kept people interested. Participants were far more likely to date someone and to stay romantically focused on that person if they thought he or she liked them, but only if at the same time those participants experienced constant twinges of attachment anxiety.
These conflicting responses are precariously balanced in budding relationships, Eastwick says. One couple stopped dating after a couple of weeks because one person felt insufficiently desired by the other. Another breakup occurred after one person’s attachment anxiety toward the other had declined sharply for more than a week. In that case, one dater may have lost interest in another whose romantic intentions were no longer in doubt, Eastwick suggests.
For one couple that dated casually throughout the follow-up period, each person’s feelings of desirability and attachment anxiety ebbed and flowed, but both reactions were always present.
Fledgling daters who experienced attachment anxiety reported far more interest in forming a serious relationship than in having a one-night stand. People with troubled backgrounds, who generally felt anxious about their standing in any close relationship, usually didn’t contact their speed dating matches.
But for the vast majority of daters, partner-specific attachment anxiety accompanies romantic attraction and imbues unrequited love with its signature sense of wretched despair, the researchers suggest.
Some researchers believe that worries stirred up by budding relationships should not be called attachment anxiety, since actual, traditional attachment bonds have yet to form.
Eastwick demurs. “It is almost as if a central component of passionate love is the fantasy that one will ultimately possess an attachment bond with the desired partner,” he says.
Feminine mystique
Evolution-minded psychologists regard women as more likely than men to want a committed relationship and to feel anxious about getting one. Because women have, since the dawn of humanity, faced much greater pressure to raise children, they have evolved to behave relatively cautiously and coyly with potential mates, according to these researchers. This tactic improves a woman’s chances of weeding out the users and the losers.
Men, on the other hand, are more apt than women to pursue short-term sexual relationships with many partners. Physical signs of a woman’s youth and beauty initially stand out for men. This perspective suggests that it is only after deciding to seek a long-term mate that men look beyond women’s surface qualities.
Consider a 2005 analysis of speed dating data, by psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Men tended to choose to have further contact with every other woman they met. Women only wanted to meet again with one in three men.
Related evidence comes from a speed dating study in the January Psychological Science. Psychologist Peter Todd of Indiana University in Bloomington and his coworkers found that observers of speed dating encounters are moderately good at picking out who later expresses romantic interest in whom, with women being harder to read than men.
In Todd’s investigation, 28 female and 26 male college students who don’t speak German watched video clips of 24 speed dating interactions among German young adults. Clips lasted either 10 or 30 seconds and featured different parts of each speed date.
Observers correctly judged others’ romantic interest in a partner about 60 percent of the time, a good but not great accuracy rate. “Some people hid their true intentions in this dating context, especially females,” Todd says.
The true feelings of the female speed daters were harder to identify in general, and five women were nearly impossible for observers of either sex to figure out.
Observers judged speed daters’ intentions best when viewing clips taken from the latter parts of encounters. Speed daters must have gathered information about each other throughout their brief interactions, making their intentions easier to read toward the end, Todd suggests. If so, then partners evaluate much more than each others’ physical attractiveness during the few minutes of a speed date.
Nonetheless, men being men, they still focus on what women look like, even if unwilling to come right out and admit it. In a 2007 speed dating study, Todd and colleagues found that men and women alike said beforehand that their ideal mate possessed all sorts of physical and personal attributes that reminded them of their own. Yet men’s choices of which women to contact after speed dates were, by admission on later questionnaires, based mostly on physical attractiveness.
Women were again the choosier sex. And each woman used judgments of her own physical allure to pick a few men having comparable desirability, based on a woman’s perceptions of each man’s wealth, status, family commitment, physical appearance and health. In other words, a woman’s opinion of her own physical beauty determined what she aspired to in a partner. Women’s self-perceived beauty lay behind their determinations of which men were good prospects.
Women become especially choosy given a large pool of prospects, picking only a few men ranked highly by nearly all female daters, Todd’s group reports in January in Animal Behaviour.
Females in many nonhuman animal species do just the opposite, expanding their mating choices when faced with plentiful male options. In those situations, high-ranking males find it more difficult to control low-ranking males’ access to fertile females.
Speed daters play the mating game in a peculiarly human way, Todd proposes. Given only a handful of choices, women get less picky because they can evaluate many characteristics of each potential date. But faced with 20 or 30 alternatives, it’s possible to track only a few obvious clues for each man, such as facial appearance and body type, narrowing the woman’s pool of choices.
Moving attractions
There’s a simple and until now unexplored way to get female speed daters to lower their romantic standards, according to Finkel. Just have them move from one man to the next, rather than waiting for each man to approach them, as is the practice at virtually all speed dating events. “The mere act of physically approaching a potential romantic partner increases one’s attraction to that person,” Finkel says.
Finkel and Eastwick describe this phenomenon in a paper to be submitted for publication. Related research has already shown that individuals tend to feel more positively toward objects or people that they physically approach, versus those viewed from a stationary position.
At 15 speed dating events organized by the Northwestern University researchers, either men or women rotated from one partner to the next while the other sex remained seated.
When men approached and women sat, men reported far more romantic desire for their various partners than women did. Men also cited greater romantic chemistry with partners, relative to the seated women, and picked larger numbers of speed dating partners for further contact. But when women approached and men sat, the number of people men and women wanted to date was about the same.
Men are generally expected, if not required, to approach women in most situations that offer romantic opportunities, Finkel notes. This subtle social expectation may substantially explain why women are choosier daters than men.
In a related 2008 study, Finkel and Eastwick found no differences between male and female speed daters’ tendencies to favor partners with good looks or promising careers. Yet on questionnaires, the men had described a preference for physically attractive dates and women had emphasized a search for guys with good earning prospects.
“Purported sex differences in mating strategies have been touted as part of our evolved legacy, but that’s a vastly oversimplified view,” Utah’s Diamond says.
Todd disagrees. Until other researchers confirm that women become less selective when told to approach prospective dates, he reserves judgment on Finkel and Eastwick’s new study. The Northwestern researchers study college-aged daters, who may not exhibit clear sex differences in dating preferences because most seek short-term relationships, Todd notes.
His own speed dating studies include 20- to 50-year-olds. Todd regards members of this age group as the best bets for seeking a committed partner and showing sex-specific mating strategies.
However evolutionary scenarios pan out, speed dating offers an efficient tool for studying real-life love connections, remarks Columbia University economist Raymond Fisman. Dating websites and census data on marriages offer other avenues for such research.
These research approaches can help answer other questions about love, such as why some people experience no qualms about interracial dating while others do. Last year, a team led by Fisman reported that prevailing racial attitudes and racial diversity in people’s home regions strongly influence their willingness to contact speed dating partners of other races. Fisman now investigates people’s attitudes about organizational and corporate corruption. When considering either corruption or dating, he says, it’s important to remember that people often lie both to themselves and others about their underlying motives. “We all tell ourselves comforting stories,” Fisman observes.
Μερικοί γεννιούνται ήρωες! Κληρονομική η ικανότητα να μένει κανείς ήρεμος στα δύσκολα
Η ικανότητα που έχουν ορισμένοι άνθρωποι να παραμένουν ήρεμοι κάτω από πίεση και αντίξοες συνθήκες, φαίνεται πως είναι κληρονομικό χαρακτηριστικό, σύμφωνα με μια νέα επιστημονική έρευνα.
'Ανθρωποι όπως ο αμερικανός πιλότος Τσ.Σουλενμπέργκερ, που προσγείωσε ψύχραιμα το αεροπλάνο του στον ποταμό Χάντσον χωρίς ανθρώπινες απώλειες, φαίνεται πως συχνά έχουν ένα μυστικό «δώρο»: ο οργανισμός τους έχει μια διαφορετική φυσιολογική-ορμονική αντίδραση στο στρες, όπως ανακοίνωσε ο καθηγητής ψυχιατρικής του πανεπιστημίου Γιέηλ των ΗΠΑ Ντιν 'Ατκινς στο ετήσιο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ένωσης για την Προώθηση της Επιστήμης, σύμφωνα με τους Times του Λονδίνου.
Η μελέτη του σε αμερικανούς στρατιώτες έδειξε ότι αν και όλοι οι άνθρωποι απελευθερώνουν ορμόνες του στρες, όταν νοιώθουν φόβο και βρίσκονται σε κίνδυνο, μερικοί μπορούν να ελέγχουν αυτές τις εκκρίσεις και έτσι να αντεπεξέρχονται καλύτερα στις δύσκολες περιστάσεις, παραμένοντας ήρεμοι και, καμιά φορά, κάνοντας ηρωικές πράξεις. Στην περίπτωσή τους, οι ορμόνες του στρες δεν αυξάνονται ιδιαίτερα και έτσι οι άνθρωποι αυτοί αγχώνονται λιγότερο από τους κοινούς θνητούς.
Ο 'Ατκινς εκτίμησε ότι η φυσιολογική αυτή ιδιαιτερότητα είναι κληρονομική, αλλά δεν ακόμα αναλυτικά στοιχεία για να βεβαιώσουν ότι οι άνθρωποι αυτοί?γεννιούνται ήρωες, ούτε ποιο είναι το ποσοστό τους στον ανθρώπινο πληθυσμό. Ο εντοπισμός αυτών των ξεχωριστών ατόμων γίνεται με τη μέτρηση του επιπέδου μιας ουσίας στο αίμα, του νευροπεπτιδίου Υ, το οποίο, όταν είναι αυξημένο, με τη σειρά του μειώνει την κορτιζόλη, την ορμόνη του στρες.
Η ανακάλυψη αυτή μπορεί να οδηγήσει, κατά τον 'Ατκινς, στη δυνατότητα να εκπαιδευτούν όλοι οι άνθρωποι να τα βγάζουν πέρα καλύτερα με το στρες ή να παίρνουν κατάλληλη φαρμακευτική θεραπεία για τη βελτίωση του ορμονικού συστήματός τους. Όπως είπε, δεν υπάρχουν άνθρωποι που δεν φοβούνται, αλλά σίγουρα ορισμένοι είναι σε θέση να αντιμετωπίζουν καλύτερα το φόβο. Πρόσθεσε ότι και οι ήρωες τελικά φοβούνται, αλλά δεν δείχνουν τα ίδια σημάδια πανικού. «Όταν τους ρωτάς, μετά από μια δύσκολη μέρα, αν η καρδιά τους χτυπούσε δυνατά ή αν οι παλάμες τους είχαν ιδρώσει, λένε ότι δεν υπήρχε τέτοιο πρόβλημα».
'Ανθρωποι όπως ο αμερικανός πιλότος Τσ.Σουλενμπέργκερ, που προσγείωσε ψύχραιμα το αεροπλάνο του στον ποταμό Χάντσον χωρίς ανθρώπινες απώλειες, φαίνεται πως συχνά έχουν ένα μυστικό «δώρο»: ο οργανισμός τους έχει μια διαφορετική φυσιολογική-ορμονική αντίδραση στο στρες, όπως ανακοίνωσε ο καθηγητής ψυχιατρικής του πανεπιστημίου Γιέηλ των ΗΠΑ Ντιν 'Ατκινς στο ετήσιο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ένωσης για την Προώθηση της Επιστήμης, σύμφωνα με τους Times του Λονδίνου.
Η μελέτη του σε αμερικανούς στρατιώτες έδειξε ότι αν και όλοι οι άνθρωποι απελευθερώνουν ορμόνες του στρες, όταν νοιώθουν φόβο και βρίσκονται σε κίνδυνο, μερικοί μπορούν να ελέγχουν αυτές τις εκκρίσεις και έτσι να αντεπεξέρχονται καλύτερα στις δύσκολες περιστάσεις, παραμένοντας ήρεμοι και, καμιά φορά, κάνοντας ηρωικές πράξεις. Στην περίπτωσή τους, οι ορμόνες του στρες δεν αυξάνονται ιδιαίτερα και έτσι οι άνθρωποι αυτοί αγχώνονται λιγότερο από τους κοινούς θνητούς.
Ο 'Ατκινς εκτίμησε ότι η φυσιολογική αυτή ιδιαιτερότητα είναι κληρονομική, αλλά δεν ακόμα αναλυτικά στοιχεία για να βεβαιώσουν ότι οι άνθρωποι αυτοί?γεννιούνται ήρωες, ούτε ποιο είναι το ποσοστό τους στον ανθρώπινο πληθυσμό. Ο εντοπισμός αυτών των ξεχωριστών ατόμων γίνεται με τη μέτρηση του επιπέδου μιας ουσίας στο αίμα, του νευροπεπτιδίου Υ, το οποίο, όταν είναι αυξημένο, με τη σειρά του μειώνει την κορτιζόλη, την ορμόνη του στρες.
Η ανακάλυψη αυτή μπορεί να οδηγήσει, κατά τον 'Ατκινς, στη δυνατότητα να εκπαιδευτούν όλοι οι άνθρωποι να τα βγάζουν πέρα καλύτερα με το στρες ή να παίρνουν κατάλληλη φαρμακευτική θεραπεία για τη βελτίωση του ορμονικού συστήματός τους. Όπως είπε, δεν υπάρχουν άνθρωποι που δεν φοβούνται, αλλά σίγουρα ορισμένοι είναι σε θέση να αντιμετωπίζουν καλύτερα το φόβο. Πρόσθεσε ότι και οι ήρωες τελικά φοβούνται, αλλά δεν δείχνουν τα ίδια σημάδια πανικού. «Όταν τους ρωτάς, μετά από μια δύσκολη μέρα, αν η καρδιά τους χτυπούσε δυνατά ή αν οι παλάμες τους είχαν ιδρώσει, λένε ότι δεν υπήρχε τέτοιο πρόβλημα».
Kοκκίνισμα: Ένα μεγάλο μυστήριο της εξέλιξης
Το "κοκκίνισμα" παραμένει ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα κενά της εξελικτικής θεωρίας, καθώς οι επιστήμονες παραδέχονται ότι δεν μπορούν να εξηγήσουν γιατί οι άνθρωποι κοκκινίζουν όταν αισθάνονται ενοχλημένοι.
Δύο αιώνες μετά το Δαρβίνο, του οποίου η επέτειος για τα 200 χρόνια από τη γέννησή του γιορτάζεται στις 14 Φεβρουαρίου, ακόμα οι βιολόγοι δεν διαθέτουν μια εξελικτική εξήγηση για το λόγο που οι άνθρωποι -άλλοι λιγότερο και άλλοι περισσότερο- συχνά-πυκνά κοκκινίζουν.
Απαντώντας στο New Scientist σχετικά με τα μυστήρια της βιολογίας που αναμένουν τη λύση τους στο μέλλον, ο Φρανς ντε Γουάλ, καθηγητής της συμπεριφοράς των πρωτευόντων θηλαστικών του πανεπιστημίου Έμορι της Γεωργίας των ΗΠΑ, επεσήμανε ότι το κοκκίνισμα αποτελεί ένα από τα τελευταία κομμάτια που λείπουν από το παζλ της ανθρώπινης εξέλιξης,
Όπως είπε, "είμαστε το μόνο θηλαστικό που κοκκινίζει αντιδρώντας σε καταστάσεις που το ενοχλούν, από ντροπή ή όταν πιαστεί να λέει ψέματα. Αναρωτιέται κανείς γιατί εμείς οι άνθρωποι χρειαζόμαστε ένα τόσο προφανές σήμα για να μεταδώσουμε αυτά τα συναισθήματα που νιώθουμε". Πρόσθεσε ότι "το κοκκίνισμα έρχεται σε αντίθεση με την τάση των ανθρώπων να χειραγωγούν τους άλλους".
Κατά μια εκδοχή, όπως είπε, το κοκκίνισμα αναπτύχθηκε στους πρώτους ανθρώπους ως μια βιολογική αντίδραση, όταν αυτοί δέχονταν πιέσεις από την υπόλοιπη κοινότητα για να είναι τίμιοι.
Όσον αφορά άλλα κενά που παραμένουν στην εξελικτική θεωρία του Δαρβίνου μέχρι σήμερα, μερικοί από τους κορυφαίους σύγχρονους εξελικτικούς βιολόγους απάντησαν, μεταξύ άλλων, ότι εξακολουθεί να παραμένει χωρίς εξελικτική εξήγηση αυτή η ίδια η προέλευση της ζωής. "Είναι ακόμα τεράστιο το κενό ανάμεσα σε ένα απλό άθροισμα χημικών μορίων και στο πιο πρωτόγονο κύτταρο", παρατήρησε ο καθηγητής βιολογίας του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας, Κρις Γουίλς, ενώ ο καθηγητής βιολογίας του πανεπιστημίου Μπράουν, Κένεθ Μίλερ, συμφώνησε ότι "ξέρουμε πολλά για τη δημιουργική χημεία της πρώιμης Γης, αλλά όχι αρκετά για να λύσουμε το πρόβλημα".
'Αλλοι εξελικτικοί βιολόγοι ανέφεραν ως άλυτα ακόμα μυστήρια την άγνοιά μας για το πώς έμοιαζε ο τελευταίος κοινός πρόγονος ανθρώπων και χιμπατζήδων, καθώς και την ελλιπή κατανόηση του ρόλου της γεωγραφικής απομόνωσης στην εξελικτική δημιουργία νέων ειδών.
Δύο αιώνες μετά το Δαρβίνο, του οποίου η επέτειος για τα 200 χρόνια από τη γέννησή του γιορτάζεται στις 14 Φεβρουαρίου, ακόμα οι βιολόγοι δεν διαθέτουν μια εξελικτική εξήγηση για το λόγο που οι άνθρωποι -άλλοι λιγότερο και άλλοι περισσότερο- συχνά-πυκνά κοκκινίζουν.
Απαντώντας στο New Scientist σχετικά με τα μυστήρια της βιολογίας που αναμένουν τη λύση τους στο μέλλον, ο Φρανς ντε Γουάλ, καθηγητής της συμπεριφοράς των πρωτευόντων θηλαστικών του πανεπιστημίου Έμορι της Γεωργίας των ΗΠΑ, επεσήμανε ότι το κοκκίνισμα αποτελεί ένα από τα τελευταία κομμάτια που λείπουν από το παζλ της ανθρώπινης εξέλιξης,
Όπως είπε, "είμαστε το μόνο θηλαστικό που κοκκινίζει αντιδρώντας σε καταστάσεις που το ενοχλούν, από ντροπή ή όταν πιαστεί να λέει ψέματα. Αναρωτιέται κανείς γιατί εμείς οι άνθρωποι χρειαζόμαστε ένα τόσο προφανές σήμα για να μεταδώσουμε αυτά τα συναισθήματα που νιώθουμε". Πρόσθεσε ότι "το κοκκίνισμα έρχεται σε αντίθεση με την τάση των ανθρώπων να χειραγωγούν τους άλλους".
Κατά μια εκδοχή, όπως είπε, το κοκκίνισμα αναπτύχθηκε στους πρώτους ανθρώπους ως μια βιολογική αντίδραση, όταν αυτοί δέχονταν πιέσεις από την υπόλοιπη κοινότητα για να είναι τίμιοι.
Όσον αφορά άλλα κενά που παραμένουν στην εξελικτική θεωρία του Δαρβίνου μέχρι σήμερα, μερικοί από τους κορυφαίους σύγχρονους εξελικτικούς βιολόγους απάντησαν, μεταξύ άλλων, ότι εξακολουθεί να παραμένει χωρίς εξελικτική εξήγηση αυτή η ίδια η προέλευση της ζωής. "Είναι ακόμα τεράστιο το κενό ανάμεσα σε ένα απλό άθροισμα χημικών μορίων και στο πιο πρωτόγονο κύτταρο", παρατήρησε ο καθηγητής βιολογίας του πανεπιστημίου της Καλιφόρνιας, Κρις Γουίλς, ενώ ο καθηγητής βιολογίας του πανεπιστημίου Μπράουν, Κένεθ Μίλερ, συμφώνησε ότι "ξέρουμε πολλά για τη δημιουργική χημεία της πρώιμης Γης, αλλά όχι αρκετά για να λύσουμε το πρόβλημα".
'Αλλοι εξελικτικοί βιολόγοι ανέφεραν ως άλυτα ακόμα μυστήρια την άγνοιά μας για το πώς έμοιαζε ο τελευταίος κοινός πρόγονος ανθρώπων και χιμπατζήδων, καθώς και την ελλιπή κατανόηση του ρόλου της γεωγραφικής απομόνωσης στην εξελικτική δημιουργία νέων ειδών.
Keeping Score Get a girl in record time, then get another one
By Craig Malisow published: June 02, 2005
Well, some people try to pick up girls / And get called asshole / This never happened to Pablo Picasso — Jonathan Richman, “Pablo Picasso”
We’re upstairs at the Red Door when Bashev sees his target: four girls in a flurry of tight pants and spaghetti straps. They’re hot babes. HBs.
It's a warm Friday night, and the Midtown rooftop is packed with well-dressed, attractive twentysomethings. Beautiful people in the know go to the Red Door, and the owners ward off everyone else by not even having a sign.
Before I know it, Bashev's in the girls' midst, and I think, What is he doing? A solo sortie like that takes guts. But Bashev's been studying fast-seduction for three years. He told me earlier he doesn't usually try to pick up girls ("to sarge") with wingmen, but I offer my services anyway. If we run into a pairing that includes an ugly girl (UG), I may have to -- in fast-seduction lingo -- jump on the grenade.
Bashev decided earlier to use one of his favorite stories. If a girl asks what the 24-year-old does, he's not going to say he's an engineering grad student at Rice. He's studied hypertechnical concepts at Amherst and the University of Massachusetts, but big freakin' deal: Women don't like the "ultra-rational" mind, he says. They like the unpredictable.
He spends most of his time in class, bogged down in technical studies. He once worked on a project titled "Automated Synthesis of Numerical Programs for Control, Simulation and Animation of Virtual Robots." Women don't want that dude, he says. They want mystery, romance, fun.
Bashev once took a girl he liked to his computer lab at school, where he deconstructs algorithms and multivariable calculus. He wooed her for a semester with linear algebra and software design methodology. Unbelievably, she split.
So that's why he'll get women to ask what he does, whereupon he'll point to his shoes and casually say, "I'm a foot model." Tonight, I'm to be his colleague, a model of the posterior. He doesn't expect them to really believe it; it's just supposed to distinguish us from the endless succession of cheeseballs who drop the same tired lines.
Bashev is tall and lean, with short light brown hair and a friendly Bulgarian accent. So he should have an edge, but by the time I work up the nerve to actually say something like "Yes, you heard correctly; I'm an ass model," a girl with long black hair has already shot him down. He didn't even get to his foot-model spiel. So he just opens with one of her friends. He asks if she thinks American reality shows are really real.
The first girl looks at me, rolls her eyes and says she doesn't care in the first place. I just stand there and do a really good impression of a dude who has nothing to say.
Bashev's not a bad-looking guy, but he's not getting anywhere. In the parlance of fast-seduction, these girls have just demonstrated the bitch shield. It's kind of like an electrified razor-wire force field they activate to fend off idiots at places like this. It doesn't mean the girl's a bitch. It means she's acting like one to protect herself from the silk-shirted vultures who want to talk about their Beemers and Bulovas.
A genuine pickup artist (PUA) can penetrate the bitch shield through sheer wit and charm. But Bashev's not an official PUA, and pretty soon we're treated like we're invisible. The girls eventually form their own continent and drift away to a table. Bashev smiles, shrugs it off. He's just getting warmed up. There's plenty more sarging to take care of. I head to the bar while the lazy lion of the Serengeti surveys the scene.
When I return from the bar with reinforcements, I see that Bashev's fellow fast-seducer has arrived. He says to call him Mr. X. They met at the Austin PUA Summit, held last Valentine's weekend, when some of the top players in the biz gave seminars on how to close the deal, as well as open one in the first place.
By the end of the evening, the Bombay-born Mr. X will explain why most women are here tonight: "They're hoping that Prince Charming is going to sweep her off her feet, take her home and give her a nice rogering."
When it comes to going after women, guys have been hoodwinked for the last 20 or 30 years, Mr. X says. Flowers and boring old dinners don't work. Women need mystery, excitement, romance. That comes naturally to some guys. But what about everyone else? What about the average frustrated chump (AFC)?
Fortunately, there's an entire online industry built around turning castoffs into Casanovas. The brand names differ, but the fast-seduction concept is the same: You don't have to be rich or extremely handsome to get the most beautiful girl in the bar. Whether you're looking for a girlfriend, a wife or a one-nighter, there are techniques that, if properly applied, can make you the kind of guy you say you hate but secretly want to be.
It's an incredibly scientific process, but one renowned pickup artist has boiled it down to its essence: Cocky + Funny = Laid. It's the theory of relativity with nice pants and a martini. And in bars and clubs throughout the world, AFCs and PUAs are putting this theory to the test.
The life of an adult woman is one of dichotomies. In her everyday life, she wants to feel like a lady -- respected and admired. But in the bedroom, she wants to feel sexual. She wants to be fucked like a slut. -- David Shade, What Women Really Look For in a Man
No doubt there was a caveman at some point in prehistory who taught his fellow Cro-Mags how to get the least hairy, least snaggle-toothed cavewoman in the clan, even if they couldn't slay a woolly mammoth or build a fire.
But the modern age of fast-seduction began around 1990, when a SoCal dweeb named Paul Ross Jeffrey self-published How to Get the Women You Desire into Bed. Jeffrey, better known as Ross Jeffries, developed a system known as Speed-Seduction. It's based on neuro-linguistic programming, the pseudo-scientific practice of eliciting desired behavior from others. This is achieved subconsciously through subtle body language and "implanted" words.
Behold the Discovery Channel Pattern. If delivered with the right tone and body language, this formula can get your target thinking about mind-blowing sex. First, tell her you recently saw a show on the Discovery Channel about the people who design roller coasters. Tell her you learned about the three components to a successful attraction to the ride: an initial overwhelming arousal; an urge to get back on once you "get off"; and a feeling of danger even though you know you're in the hands of something safe. From there, you launch into the experience of riding a roller coaster: heart-pounding excitement, a buildup and release of tension, etc. Voilà. She's yours for the taking.
Jeffries used the Web as early as 1993 to spread the gospel of Speed-Seduction throughout the world. He made tapes, gave seminars, got lots of press. To AFCs, the whole idea of Speed-Seduction was the Holy Grail. Finally, there was a chance for shy, fat or bald guys to shine. User groups popped up online, as did countless Jeffries imitators, each boasting exponentially better techniques.
Jeffries's Web site promises you'll seduce at least three women in 90 days or "you pay nothing." His home-study courses range from $225 to $370.
But for $18.95 at AdvancedMacking.com, a guy named Anthony Berger says he'll get you three girls per week by showing you how to "talk to chicks and get them wet DURING the conversation." One can only hope Berger's better at macking than spelling. Choice quote: "Seduce & Mind-Fuck Women: That's were we shine!"
And in What Women Really Look For in a Man, David Shade includes chapters titled "Getting Her to Pose for Pics," "Slip in the Back Door" and "The Nipple Orgasm."
The field got crowded enough that, in 1999, Jeffries sued fellow poonhound R. Don Steele, author of How to Date Young Women (For Men Over 35). Steele had attacked Jeffries online, calling him a fraud and a kike, and Jeffries sued for libel. (Somewhat cryptically, Steele told the New Times Los Angeles, "I'm not anti-Semitic. I just hate kikes.")
The lawsuit achieved nothing; both men are still in business, but Jeffries is more popular. That may have to do with the fact that, as preposterous as it may sound, he bends over backward to explain that he is not a misogynist, that these techniques are designed to bring pleasure to both men and women.
On the other hand, Steele names the women he's slept with, including an 18-year-old when he was 48.
Cradle-robbing anti-Semites aside, the fast-seduction community isn't the lechfest it might sound like. There are those out there who want to share confidence-building techniques with the archetypal "nice guy," as on fastseduction.com.
Created about five years ago by Boston-based PUA Formhandle, the site is the most comprehensive compendium of techniques from big-time players as well as average guys who've stumbled into lucky streaks. There is a general forum, as well as discussion groups for different cities. The site also offers a wingman-pairing service for a seducer whose regular buddy is unavailable.
The 32-year-old Formhandle says his site is not a den of deception, but a way for guys all over the world to improve their attitude, social skills and confidence. It's a way for them to get over their insecurities and become the kind of guy a woman would like to get to know.
"Basically, it's no more deceptive than women putting on makeup to improve their…level of attraction to men," Formhandle says from Boston. "It's no more deceptive than push-up bras or heels or going to the gym to work out…This isn't just a game of words and seduction, it's an overall life improvement."
That's not to say the board doesn't have its share of coarse language. This is, after all, a community of guys, many of whom are sexually frustrated and have more on their mind than elegant prose. So you'll find guys like Nashvilleplayboy, whose mantra is "Pussy is pussy. It just happens to be wrapped in different wrappers. Don't get caught up in the wrapper."
Sayings like that will protect Formhandle from his fear that his site will mutate into an "Oprah board." As crass as they can be, guys give better advice in this area than women, he says.
A woman "truly doesn't know what causes her to be attracted to a man," he says. "She's not going to sit down logically at any point and make her list of things that you know make her attracted to a man. There are the obvious things -- the wish list that women have, like tall, dark, handsome, rich…funny. Those are just so common that they're meaningless. And they don't actually -- they aren't the real thing that causes her to be attracted or aroused. They may be the thing that maybe causes her to have some interest in the man in the first place…ultimately, she doesn't know for sure."
But what about "just be yourself"?
"When somebody says be yourself…what they mean is be better than yourself," he says. "Be somebody who's obviously better than what you are now."
Formhandle elaborates: "She has to look across at the guy…and decide, you know, 'Whatever I see, if it interests me, is it really this person for real, or is he faking it?' And that's ultimately this whole 'be yourself' thing. Well, women will say that because they want the guy to be himself so they can better judge who they're dealing with. But as far as people who need something to improve themselves, that advice doesn't work. And you have to kind of tell them, 'Pick another person and be that.' "
Tim Perper, an independent researcher and author of Sex Signals: The Biology of Love, has studied courtship for 25 years. A biologist by training, he doesn't have faith in the scientific validity of neuro-linguistic programming, but he understands why so many guys would be drawn to a set of techniques that promise to build confidence and luck with women.
Men have a tendency to be cautious with women, he says. "And women sometimes comment on that -- 'Here we are, dressed up to the nines, and nobody talks to us.' Too many men have simply gotten shot down, or watched other guys get shot down, really, to want to risk walking across the bar. One guy described that to me as saying, 'It's like climbing Mt. Everest, but slower.' "
The fear of rejection is coupled with the nearly innate belief that all women are experts in the rules of attraction.
"We men tend to think that women know all the lines and all the rules, but she may be just as shy as we are," Perper says from his home office in Philadelphia. "She may be looking for the guy to say something inviting to her."
The best bet is avoiding lines altogether.
"They're very, very treacherous," he says. "They might work because the girl was charmed by them…or they're being used truly spontaneously, or they're just plain funny. But used manipulatively, as a ploy, they're probably going to bomb."
Neil Strauss, a writer for The New York Times and Rolling Stone, spent two years within the community, which he details in his upcoming book, The Game: Undercover in the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists. Strauss says an editor pitched the idea, and he went into it simply wanting to understand the guys who "seemed like gods on earth, living every man's fantasy." No one was more surprised than Strauss when he became one of the community's foremost experts and wound up leading fast-seduction workshops.
"I really have love for the guys who are trying to learn," says Strauss, who's also ghostwritten books for Jenna Jameson, Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson.
Generally, Strauss says, guys don't give one another sexual advice. Conversations on the matter usually begin with "Did you get some?" and end with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
"To admit that you're not getting any is to admit you're not a man," he says. "And here are guys" in the community "who had the confidence to say, 'I'm completely unconfident.' "
Talk of one-night stands is rare, and misogyny is rarer, Strauss says. More typical are the quiet guys afraid of rejection. For them, he says, fast-seduction is a set of training wheels that can put them at ease around women.
Strauss learned under perhaps the most legendary PUA in the biz, a tall Canadian magician named Erik von Markovik, a.k.a. Mystery.
According to Mystery's self-propagated backstory, he discovered his skills accidentally, picking up a girl at a Toronto juice bar after performing a magic trick. He soon developed a set of principles and techniques, and before long AFCs were flocking to Toronto to study under him. Today, his two-day seminars command around $650.
Mystery is perhaps the most written-about PUA and holds the improbable status of being profiled in both the Utne reader and Elle, in which he tried to woo writer Lauren Sandler into his hot tub.
The Mystery Method Web site encourages integrity: "We specifically advocate NOT lying to or deceiving women -- not only is it unnecessary (we teach you how to get what you want, even threesomes or multiple women, by being a man about it and establishing a strong frame rather than lying and deceiving) but it is also beneath us."
Mystery writes that this honest approach works at all levels, from one-nighters to finding a spouse. But in his years in the community, Strauss says, he didn't hear much talk about the former.
"Some of these guys just want girlfriends," he says. "Some might want to sleep with a woman, but it doesn't have to be that night. Everyone's in it for different reasons, but a lot of guys, you know, just want a woman because they haven't kissed a woman in a couple years."
In his AFC days, he'd shower a woman with gifts and flowers and try to make her feel like a princess. "And that's what a woman wants when she's dating a guy. But before she's dating a guy…she doesn't want that. She wants to feel a challenge…If you have to work for it, it's a little bit of a challenge, you appreciate it more. It's true about anything in life. If it comes too easy, it must not have value."
So is Mr. X right? Have guys been conditioned with bad information for years on end?
"So the whole thing about putting her on a pedestal -- that's not going to get you anywhere?" I ask Strauss.
He's quick to respond with a question that's really an answer.
"What's happened within your experience when you've done that?"
It is a proven fact that women have certain hard-wired attraction switches, and also automatic avoidance mechanisms, for certain types of behavior. Wouldn't it be useful to know how that works? -- Mystery, www.mysterymethod.com
Sarging at Baker Street is impossible tonight; it's too packed to hear yourself think.
So Bashev and I walk across the street to Brian O'Neill's. Rice Village is a target-rich environment; a string of bars and plenty of single young women.
As we enter, Bashev stops to talk with a woman he knows.
"Social proof -- I know the manager," he says. Social proof means you're the man. If HBs see you in the company of other women, or if you're keeping a crowd entertained, you must have value, and she's hooked.
This demonstration of social proof is good for Bashev, who's a bit subtler -- he doesn't peacock, like Mystery, who wears black nail polish and platform boots.
At the bar, we sip on some nourishing gin and tonics and look for HBs. Bashev spots a seven and an eight sitting at a table. It helps to calculate a woman's beauty on the standard one-to-ten scale, because that influences the approach. (Some seducers use a bifurcated scale; e.g., seven-nine means a seven face and a nine body.)
When approaching anything above a seven, it's wise to use a "neg," or a slight insult, like "Nice nails -- are they real?" The thinking here is that extremely attractive women are used to simpering fools showering them with corny compliments, and that just ain't cool. If you neg -- and follow it up by turning your back to her -- you're making her notice you. But you've got to know how to use a neg. The Fast Seduction site recommends no more than two negs for a seven and a maximum of three for a ten.
Unfortunately, the eight's boyfriend returns from the bathroom and puts the kibosh on that table. Some seducers can and even enjoy sarging women with boyfriends, but there are enough women here that such a complication is unnecessary.
We move out to the patio as the band launches into "Wish You Were Here," a morose song if there ever was one, and not one especially suited for sarging. Hell, "Taps" would be more uplifting.
Outside, Bashev busts into his foot-model spiel with two women who are less than thrilled. He doesn't offer to buy them a drink, nor will he do that with anyone else. A firm fast-seduction rule prohibits such activity; it merely signals your submission. An HB will have guys offer her drinks all night, but the one who negs her, won't buy her a drink or refuses her request for one surely will distinguish himself.
The girls excuse themselves to a table. A minute later I follow, hoping they don't pack pepper spray. I tell them Bashev's not really a foot model, and I'm not a foot model's friend. I tell them I'm observing fast-seducers, like Jane Goodall and the chimps, and ask for their input.
Sarah, with black curls and a black shirt, describes the two of them as "science nerds" in their upper twenties. "Dude -- I'm getting a Ph.D. in biochemistry; the whole foot-model thing doesn't do it for me," says Sarah. She says she's read a bit about fast-seduction and finds it laughable.
"Typically, my response to that is: 'Dude, you're an asshole,' " she says, adding later, "my asshole meter is pretty finely tuned."
Julie, a zoologist, says she found Bashev's opener cute for about a minute, but then she lost interest. She says fast-seduction might work "if you do it to the right kind of girl."
Sarah says that if Bashev or anyone else was hoping to get her into bed that night, they'd be wasting their time.
"If I actually like a guy, I'm not going to drag a guy home from a bar," she says. "I'm going to call him for dinner next week."
By the time I report back to Bashev, he's already found two other women, and is expressing a clear interest in the brunette. In an effort to give them space, I sacrilegiously offer to buy her blond friend a drink inside the bar. We take our drinks over to a long couch and break into small talk. I don't even attempt fast-seduction, because I've realized by now that I would feel like a complete tool. There's no way I could tell this girl, with a straight face, about an interesting show I saw on the Discovery Channel last night. I don't even have cable.
But here we are, and we aren't going anywhere, because Bashev has locked onto her friend for the remainder of the evening. Before long, they're on the couch across the coffee table from us, and she's in his lap. He and I make eye contact, and he gives me this look as if to say, See what I mean?
According to the story Bashev tells me later, he began by "busting her balls," which was okay, since she was easily an eight. He saw the pack of Marlboros in her back jeans pocket, which to Europeans is a cowboy cliché. So he told her she looked like a cowboy.
Don't say that -- I don't like that image, she said.
Bashev responded by ignoring her. I'm just looking at your ass, he said. He said this because her ass is firm, and she knows it. But it was all part of the setup.
She asked if he liked it because it's firm; that's why all the guys like to look.
I didn't say I liked it. I think you should work on it in the gym.
Disbelief: Are you saying I'm fat?
Well, honey, you're really losing it. You need to hit the gym.
"And when I said that," Bashev explains, "she was really attracted to me."
Now she was hooked. He moved her inside, where, as serendipity would have it, a horse race was on TV. He caught her watching.
I thought you weren't a cowboy.
Oh, I wasn't really looking there.
Again, he ignored her, and tried running a pattern: Imagine what it would be like to be in the stands, and to not care about the competition, and get close to each other and make out…
Suspicion: Are you saying you want us to make out?
Whoops. Went too far. Time for damage control. He directed her attention to a couple at a table a few yards away.
No, I was talking about them -- see how they look into each other's eyes? A gentle nudge to her side. What, did you think I wanted to kiss you? I don't kiss strangers right away. Bingo. He reversed the frame, used her own language on herself. Damage controlled.
They moved to the couch, where he busted out an effective gimmick: palm-reading. It works for those who've really paid attention to what the girl's been saying all evening. Earlier, she told him that she changes friends a lot. So he traced along a line and said, You seem unattached to people.
Wow…remember, I told you that I was not attached to my friends?
Oh, my God. Well, I'm getting really good at this.
While he read her palms, her fingers were gently grasping the backs of his wrists. He told her he liked how it felt. So he asked where she liked to be touched.
My knees.
"I started touching her knees," he explains later. "I think that was the turning point, right there."
He left with her number and a date for Wednesday night.
Well, some people try to pick up girls / And get called asshole / This never happened to Pablo Picasso — Jonathan Richman, “Pablo Picasso”
We’re upstairs at the Red Door when Bashev sees his target: four girls in a flurry of tight pants and spaghetti straps. They’re hot babes. HBs.
It's a warm Friday night, and the Midtown rooftop is packed with well-dressed, attractive twentysomethings. Beautiful people in the know go to the Red Door, and the owners ward off everyone else by not even having a sign.
Before I know it, Bashev's in the girls' midst, and I think, What is he doing? A solo sortie like that takes guts. But Bashev's been studying fast-seduction for three years. He told me earlier he doesn't usually try to pick up girls ("to sarge") with wingmen, but I offer my services anyway. If we run into a pairing that includes an ugly girl (UG), I may have to -- in fast-seduction lingo -- jump on the grenade.
Bashev decided earlier to use one of his favorite stories. If a girl asks what the 24-year-old does, he's not going to say he's an engineering grad student at Rice. He's studied hypertechnical concepts at Amherst and the University of Massachusetts, but big freakin' deal: Women don't like the "ultra-rational" mind, he says. They like the unpredictable.
He spends most of his time in class, bogged down in technical studies. He once worked on a project titled "Automated Synthesis of Numerical Programs for Control, Simulation and Animation of Virtual Robots." Women don't want that dude, he says. They want mystery, romance, fun.
Bashev once took a girl he liked to his computer lab at school, where he deconstructs algorithms and multivariable calculus. He wooed her for a semester with linear algebra and software design methodology. Unbelievably, she split.
So that's why he'll get women to ask what he does, whereupon he'll point to his shoes and casually say, "I'm a foot model." Tonight, I'm to be his colleague, a model of the posterior. He doesn't expect them to really believe it; it's just supposed to distinguish us from the endless succession of cheeseballs who drop the same tired lines.
Bashev is tall and lean, with short light brown hair and a friendly Bulgarian accent. So he should have an edge, but by the time I work up the nerve to actually say something like "Yes, you heard correctly; I'm an ass model," a girl with long black hair has already shot him down. He didn't even get to his foot-model spiel. So he just opens with one of her friends. He asks if she thinks American reality shows are really real.
The first girl looks at me, rolls her eyes and says she doesn't care in the first place. I just stand there and do a really good impression of a dude who has nothing to say.
Bashev's not a bad-looking guy, but he's not getting anywhere. In the parlance of fast-seduction, these girls have just demonstrated the bitch shield. It's kind of like an electrified razor-wire force field they activate to fend off idiots at places like this. It doesn't mean the girl's a bitch. It means she's acting like one to protect herself from the silk-shirted vultures who want to talk about their Beemers and Bulovas.
A genuine pickup artist (PUA) can penetrate the bitch shield through sheer wit and charm. But Bashev's not an official PUA, and pretty soon we're treated like we're invisible. The girls eventually form their own continent and drift away to a table. Bashev smiles, shrugs it off. He's just getting warmed up. There's plenty more sarging to take care of. I head to the bar while the lazy lion of the Serengeti surveys the scene.
When I return from the bar with reinforcements, I see that Bashev's fellow fast-seducer has arrived. He says to call him Mr. X. They met at the Austin PUA Summit, held last Valentine's weekend, when some of the top players in the biz gave seminars on how to close the deal, as well as open one in the first place.
By the end of the evening, the Bombay-born Mr. X will explain why most women are here tonight: "They're hoping that Prince Charming is going to sweep her off her feet, take her home and give her a nice rogering."
When it comes to going after women, guys have been hoodwinked for the last 20 or 30 years, Mr. X says. Flowers and boring old dinners don't work. Women need mystery, excitement, romance. That comes naturally to some guys. But what about everyone else? What about the average frustrated chump (AFC)?
Fortunately, there's an entire online industry built around turning castoffs into Casanovas. The brand names differ, but the fast-seduction concept is the same: You don't have to be rich or extremely handsome to get the most beautiful girl in the bar. Whether you're looking for a girlfriend, a wife or a one-nighter, there are techniques that, if properly applied, can make you the kind of guy you say you hate but secretly want to be.
It's an incredibly scientific process, but one renowned pickup artist has boiled it down to its essence: Cocky + Funny = Laid. It's the theory of relativity with nice pants and a martini. And in bars and clubs throughout the world, AFCs and PUAs are putting this theory to the test.
The life of an adult woman is one of dichotomies. In her everyday life, she wants to feel like a lady -- respected and admired. But in the bedroom, she wants to feel sexual. She wants to be fucked like a slut. -- David Shade, What Women Really Look For in a Man
No doubt there was a caveman at some point in prehistory who taught his fellow Cro-Mags how to get the least hairy, least snaggle-toothed cavewoman in the clan, even if they couldn't slay a woolly mammoth or build a fire.
But the modern age of fast-seduction began around 1990, when a SoCal dweeb named Paul Ross Jeffrey self-published How to Get the Women You Desire into Bed. Jeffrey, better known as Ross Jeffries, developed a system known as Speed-Seduction. It's based on neuro-linguistic programming, the pseudo-scientific practice of eliciting desired behavior from others. This is achieved subconsciously through subtle body language and "implanted" words.
Behold the Discovery Channel Pattern. If delivered with the right tone and body language, this formula can get your target thinking about mind-blowing sex. First, tell her you recently saw a show on the Discovery Channel about the people who design roller coasters. Tell her you learned about the three components to a successful attraction to the ride: an initial overwhelming arousal; an urge to get back on once you "get off"; and a feeling of danger even though you know you're in the hands of something safe. From there, you launch into the experience of riding a roller coaster: heart-pounding excitement, a buildup and release of tension, etc. Voilà. She's yours for the taking.
Jeffries used the Web as early as 1993 to spread the gospel of Speed-Seduction throughout the world. He made tapes, gave seminars, got lots of press. To AFCs, the whole idea of Speed-Seduction was the Holy Grail. Finally, there was a chance for shy, fat or bald guys to shine. User groups popped up online, as did countless Jeffries imitators, each boasting exponentially better techniques.
Jeffries's Web site promises you'll seduce at least three women in 90 days or "you pay nothing." His home-study courses range from $225 to $370.
But for $18.95 at AdvancedMacking.com, a guy named Anthony Berger says he'll get you three girls per week by showing you how to "talk to chicks and get them wet DURING the conversation." One can only hope Berger's better at macking than spelling. Choice quote: "Seduce & Mind-Fuck Women: That's were we shine!"
And in What Women Really Look For in a Man, David Shade includes chapters titled "Getting Her to Pose for Pics," "Slip in the Back Door" and "The Nipple Orgasm."
The field got crowded enough that, in 1999, Jeffries sued fellow poonhound R. Don Steele, author of How to Date Young Women (For Men Over 35). Steele had attacked Jeffries online, calling him a fraud and a kike, and Jeffries sued for libel. (Somewhat cryptically, Steele told the New Times Los Angeles, "I'm not anti-Semitic. I just hate kikes.")
The lawsuit achieved nothing; both men are still in business, but Jeffries is more popular. That may have to do with the fact that, as preposterous as it may sound, he bends over backward to explain that he is not a misogynist, that these techniques are designed to bring pleasure to both men and women.
On the other hand, Steele names the women he's slept with, including an 18-year-old when he was 48.
Cradle-robbing anti-Semites aside, the fast-seduction community isn't the lechfest it might sound like. There are those out there who want to share confidence-building techniques with the archetypal "nice guy," as on fastseduction.com.
Created about five years ago by Boston-based PUA Formhandle, the site is the most comprehensive compendium of techniques from big-time players as well as average guys who've stumbled into lucky streaks. There is a general forum, as well as discussion groups for different cities. The site also offers a wingman-pairing service for a seducer whose regular buddy is unavailable.
The 32-year-old Formhandle says his site is not a den of deception, but a way for guys all over the world to improve their attitude, social skills and confidence. It's a way for them to get over their insecurities and become the kind of guy a woman would like to get to know.
"Basically, it's no more deceptive than women putting on makeup to improve their…level of attraction to men," Formhandle says from Boston. "It's no more deceptive than push-up bras or heels or going to the gym to work out…This isn't just a game of words and seduction, it's an overall life improvement."
That's not to say the board doesn't have its share of coarse language. This is, after all, a community of guys, many of whom are sexually frustrated and have more on their mind than elegant prose. So you'll find guys like Nashvilleplayboy, whose mantra is "Pussy is pussy. It just happens to be wrapped in different wrappers. Don't get caught up in the wrapper."
Sayings like that will protect Formhandle from his fear that his site will mutate into an "Oprah board." As crass as they can be, guys give better advice in this area than women, he says.
A woman "truly doesn't know what causes her to be attracted to a man," he says. "She's not going to sit down logically at any point and make her list of things that you know make her attracted to a man. There are the obvious things -- the wish list that women have, like tall, dark, handsome, rich…funny. Those are just so common that they're meaningless. And they don't actually -- they aren't the real thing that causes her to be attracted or aroused. They may be the thing that maybe causes her to have some interest in the man in the first place…ultimately, she doesn't know for sure."
But what about "just be yourself"?
"When somebody says be yourself…what they mean is be better than yourself," he says. "Be somebody who's obviously better than what you are now."
Formhandle elaborates: "She has to look across at the guy…and decide, you know, 'Whatever I see, if it interests me, is it really this person for real, or is he faking it?' And that's ultimately this whole 'be yourself' thing. Well, women will say that because they want the guy to be himself so they can better judge who they're dealing with. But as far as people who need something to improve themselves, that advice doesn't work. And you have to kind of tell them, 'Pick another person and be that.' "
Tim Perper, an independent researcher and author of Sex Signals: The Biology of Love, has studied courtship for 25 years. A biologist by training, he doesn't have faith in the scientific validity of neuro-linguistic programming, but he understands why so many guys would be drawn to a set of techniques that promise to build confidence and luck with women.
Men have a tendency to be cautious with women, he says. "And women sometimes comment on that -- 'Here we are, dressed up to the nines, and nobody talks to us.' Too many men have simply gotten shot down, or watched other guys get shot down, really, to want to risk walking across the bar. One guy described that to me as saying, 'It's like climbing Mt. Everest, but slower.' "
The fear of rejection is coupled with the nearly innate belief that all women are experts in the rules of attraction.
"We men tend to think that women know all the lines and all the rules, but she may be just as shy as we are," Perper says from his home office in Philadelphia. "She may be looking for the guy to say something inviting to her."
The best bet is avoiding lines altogether.
"They're very, very treacherous," he says. "They might work because the girl was charmed by them…or they're being used truly spontaneously, or they're just plain funny. But used manipulatively, as a ploy, they're probably going to bomb."
Neil Strauss, a writer for The New York Times and Rolling Stone, spent two years within the community, which he details in his upcoming book, The Game: Undercover in the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists. Strauss says an editor pitched the idea, and he went into it simply wanting to understand the guys who "seemed like gods on earth, living every man's fantasy." No one was more surprised than Strauss when he became one of the community's foremost experts and wound up leading fast-seduction workshops.
"I really have love for the guys who are trying to learn," says Strauss, who's also ghostwritten books for Jenna Jameson, Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson.
Generally, Strauss says, guys don't give one another sexual advice. Conversations on the matter usually begin with "Did you get some?" and end with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
"To admit that you're not getting any is to admit you're not a man," he says. "And here are guys" in the community "who had the confidence to say, 'I'm completely unconfident.' "
Talk of one-night stands is rare, and misogyny is rarer, Strauss says. More typical are the quiet guys afraid of rejection. For them, he says, fast-seduction is a set of training wheels that can put them at ease around women.
Strauss learned under perhaps the most legendary PUA in the biz, a tall Canadian magician named Erik von Markovik, a.k.a. Mystery.
According to Mystery's self-propagated backstory, he discovered his skills accidentally, picking up a girl at a Toronto juice bar after performing a magic trick. He soon developed a set of principles and techniques, and before long AFCs were flocking to Toronto to study under him. Today, his two-day seminars command around $650.
Mystery is perhaps the most written-about PUA and holds the improbable status of being profiled in both the Utne reader and Elle, in which he tried to woo writer Lauren Sandler into his hot tub.
The Mystery Method Web site encourages integrity: "We specifically advocate NOT lying to or deceiving women -- not only is it unnecessary (we teach you how to get what you want, even threesomes or multiple women, by being a man about it and establishing a strong frame rather than lying and deceiving) but it is also beneath us."
Mystery writes that this honest approach works at all levels, from one-nighters to finding a spouse. But in his years in the community, Strauss says, he didn't hear much talk about the former.
"Some of these guys just want girlfriends," he says. "Some might want to sleep with a woman, but it doesn't have to be that night. Everyone's in it for different reasons, but a lot of guys, you know, just want a woman because they haven't kissed a woman in a couple years."
In his AFC days, he'd shower a woman with gifts and flowers and try to make her feel like a princess. "And that's what a woman wants when she's dating a guy. But before she's dating a guy…she doesn't want that. She wants to feel a challenge…If you have to work for it, it's a little bit of a challenge, you appreciate it more. It's true about anything in life. If it comes too easy, it must not have value."
So is Mr. X right? Have guys been conditioned with bad information for years on end?
"So the whole thing about putting her on a pedestal -- that's not going to get you anywhere?" I ask Strauss.
He's quick to respond with a question that's really an answer.
"What's happened within your experience when you've done that?"
It is a proven fact that women have certain hard-wired attraction switches, and also automatic avoidance mechanisms, for certain types of behavior. Wouldn't it be useful to know how that works? -- Mystery, www.mysterymethod.com
Sarging at Baker Street is impossible tonight; it's too packed to hear yourself think.
So Bashev and I walk across the street to Brian O'Neill's. Rice Village is a target-rich environment; a string of bars and plenty of single young women.
As we enter, Bashev stops to talk with a woman he knows.
"Social proof -- I know the manager," he says. Social proof means you're the man. If HBs see you in the company of other women, or if you're keeping a crowd entertained, you must have value, and she's hooked.
This demonstration of social proof is good for Bashev, who's a bit subtler -- he doesn't peacock, like Mystery, who wears black nail polish and platform boots.
At the bar, we sip on some nourishing gin and tonics and look for HBs. Bashev spots a seven and an eight sitting at a table. It helps to calculate a woman's beauty on the standard one-to-ten scale, because that influences the approach. (Some seducers use a bifurcated scale; e.g., seven-nine means a seven face and a nine body.)
When approaching anything above a seven, it's wise to use a "neg," or a slight insult, like "Nice nails -- are they real?" The thinking here is that extremely attractive women are used to simpering fools showering them with corny compliments, and that just ain't cool. If you neg -- and follow it up by turning your back to her -- you're making her notice you. But you've got to know how to use a neg. The Fast Seduction site recommends no more than two negs for a seven and a maximum of three for a ten.
Unfortunately, the eight's boyfriend returns from the bathroom and puts the kibosh on that table. Some seducers can and even enjoy sarging women with boyfriends, but there are enough women here that such a complication is unnecessary.
We move out to the patio as the band launches into "Wish You Were Here," a morose song if there ever was one, and not one especially suited for sarging. Hell, "Taps" would be more uplifting.
Outside, Bashev busts into his foot-model spiel with two women who are less than thrilled. He doesn't offer to buy them a drink, nor will he do that with anyone else. A firm fast-seduction rule prohibits such activity; it merely signals your submission. An HB will have guys offer her drinks all night, but the one who negs her, won't buy her a drink or refuses her request for one surely will distinguish himself.
The girls excuse themselves to a table. A minute later I follow, hoping they don't pack pepper spray. I tell them Bashev's not really a foot model, and I'm not a foot model's friend. I tell them I'm observing fast-seducers, like Jane Goodall and the chimps, and ask for their input.
Sarah, with black curls and a black shirt, describes the two of them as "science nerds" in their upper twenties. "Dude -- I'm getting a Ph.D. in biochemistry; the whole foot-model thing doesn't do it for me," says Sarah. She says she's read a bit about fast-seduction and finds it laughable.
"Typically, my response to that is: 'Dude, you're an asshole,' " she says, adding later, "my asshole meter is pretty finely tuned."
Julie, a zoologist, says she found Bashev's opener cute for about a minute, but then she lost interest. She says fast-seduction might work "if you do it to the right kind of girl."
Sarah says that if Bashev or anyone else was hoping to get her into bed that night, they'd be wasting their time.
"If I actually like a guy, I'm not going to drag a guy home from a bar," she says. "I'm going to call him for dinner next week."
By the time I report back to Bashev, he's already found two other women, and is expressing a clear interest in the brunette. In an effort to give them space, I sacrilegiously offer to buy her blond friend a drink inside the bar. We take our drinks over to a long couch and break into small talk. I don't even attempt fast-seduction, because I've realized by now that I would feel like a complete tool. There's no way I could tell this girl, with a straight face, about an interesting show I saw on the Discovery Channel last night. I don't even have cable.
But here we are, and we aren't going anywhere, because Bashev has locked onto her friend for the remainder of the evening. Before long, they're on the couch across the coffee table from us, and she's in his lap. He and I make eye contact, and he gives me this look as if to say, See what I mean?
According to the story Bashev tells me later, he began by "busting her balls," which was okay, since she was easily an eight. He saw the pack of Marlboros in her back jeans pocket, which to Europeans is a cowboy cliché. So he told her she looked like a cowboy.
Don't say that -- I don't like that image, she said.
Bashev responded by ignoring her. I'm just looking at your ass, he said. He said this because her ass is firm, and she knows it. But it was all part of the setup.
She asked if he liked it because it's firm; that's why all the guys like to look.
I didn't say I liked it. I think you should work on it in the gym.
Disbelief: Are you saying I'm fat?
Well, honey, you're really losing it. You need to hit the gym.
"And when I said that," Bashev explains, "she was really attracted to me."
Now she was hooked. He moved her inside, where, as serendipity would have it, a horse race was on TV. He caught her watching.
I thought you weren't a cowboy.
Oh, I wasn't really looking there.
Again, he ignored her, and tried running a pattern: Imagine what it would be like to be in the stands, and to not care about the competition, and get close to each other and make out…
Suspicion: Are you saying you want us to make out?
Whoops. Went too far. Time for damage control. He directed her attention to a couple at a table a few yards away.
No, I was talking about them -- see how they look into each other's eyes? A gentle nudge to her side. What, did you think I wanted to kiss you? I don't kiss strangers right away. Bingo. He reversed the frame, used her own language on herself. Damage controlled.
They moved to the couch, where he busted out an effective gimmick: palm-reading. It works for those who've really paid attention to what the girl's been saying all evening. Earlier, she told him that she changes friends a lot. So he traced along a line and said, You seem unattached to people.
Wow…remember, I told you that I was not attached to my friends?
Oh, my God. Well, I'm getting really good at this.
While he read her palms, her fingers were gently grasping the backs of his wrists. He told her he liked how it felt. So he asked where she liked to be touched.
My knees.
"I started touching her knees," he explains later. "I think that was the turning point, right there."
He left with her number and a date for Wednesday night.
Feb 16, 2009
Η συμβίωση μειώνει τις πιθανότητες του γάμου
Πριν 40 χρόνια, όποια γυναίκα συζούσε μ’ έναν άνδρα χωρίς να είναι παντρεμένη έφερε το κοινωνικό στίγμα της “παστρικιάς” και της “σπιτωμένης”. Τo ίδιο αρνητικό στερεότυπο επικρατούσε στην Ευρώπη και την Αμερική. Σήμερα, τα πράγματα έχουν αλλάξει εντελώς και η ελεύθερη συμβίωση είναι κοινωνικά αποδεκτή. Η ελεύθερη συμβίωση αυξάνεται σ’ όλο τον κόσμο και το υψηλότερο ποσοστό έχει η Σουηδία όπου το 20% των ενηλίκων συμβιώνει και το 45,5% είναι παντρεμένοι. Στις Σκανδιναβικές χώρες και τη Βρετανία, σχεδόν τα μισά παιδιά γεννιούνται εκτός γάμου. Στην Ελλάδα, η ελεύθερη συμβίωση δεν είναι διαδεδομένη και μόνο το 5% των παιδιών προέρχονται από ανύπαντρες μητέρες.
Ο λόγος που αυξάνονται οι ελεύθερες συμβιώσεις είναι ότι υποχωρεί ο γάμος. Το 1970 στις ΗΠΑ υπήρχαν 21 εκατομμύρια άνθρωποι που δεν είχαν παντρευτεί ποτέ στη ζωή τους ενώ το 2007 υπήρχαν πάνω από 60 εκατομμύρια. Σ’ αυτή τη περίοδο, τα ετερόφυλα ζευγάρια που συμβιώνουν αυξήθηκαν από 500,000 σε 7 εκατομμύρια. Καθώς ο γάμος γίνεται όλο και λιγότερο δημοφιλής – μόνο στα γκέϊ ζευγάρια αυξάνεται –οι ψυχολόγοι είδαν αρχικά την ελεύθερη συμβίωση ως μια πρόβα γάμου που θα μείωνε στη συνέχεια τις πιθανότητες διαζυγίου. Άρχισε όμως να φαίνεται ότι η ελεύθερη συμβίωση κάθε άλλο παρά λειτουργεί ως προγαμιαίο στάδιο αλλά ως αντικατάσταση του γάμου.
Η λογική “δοκίμασε πριν αγοράσεις” δεν λειτουργεί υπέρ του γάμου και όσοι συμβιώνουν έχουν μικρή πιθανότητα να παντρευτούν. Τελικά, μόνο το 26% των γυναικών και το 19% των ανδρών παντρεύονται το άτομο με το οποίο συμβίωσαν. Πάει κόντρα στη λογική αλλά όποιος θέλει να παντρευτεί καλύτερα να αποφύγει την ελεύθερη συμβίωση. Καθώς λίγες ελεύθερες σχέσεις καταλήγουν σε γάμο, οι χριστιανικές εκκλησίες προέτρεψαν τους πιστούς να μη συμβιώνουν, άλλωστε είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι για τη Βίβλο η συμβίωση χωρίς γάμο είναι αμαρτία. Στην προς Εβραίους επιστολή αναφέρεται: «Άξιος τιμής ας είναι ο γάμος από όλους και το συζυγικό κρεβάτι αμόλυντο, γιατί πόρνους και μοιχούς θα τους κρίνει ο Θεός».
Οι έρευνες έδειξαν επίσης ότι τα ζευγάρια που κατέληξαν σε γάμο ύστερα από ελεύθερη συμβίωση, έχουν μεγάλη πιθανότητα να χωρίσουν που φτάνει το 57% στα πρώτα 10 χρόνια γάμου. Από την άλλη μεριά, τα ζευγάρια που παντρεύτηκαν χωρίς να έχουν συμβιώσει, τα πάνε πολύ καλύτερα έχοντας πιθανότητα χωρισμού μόνο 30%. Οι ερευνητές έψαξαν να βρουν γιατί η ελεύθερη συμβίωση δεν λειτουργεί υπέρ του γάμου. Κατά μία άποψη, αυτό συμβαίνει επειδή άντρες και γυναίκες επιζητούν διαφορετικά πράγματα από την ελεύθερη συμβίωση. Ο άντρας επιδιώκει το “έξυπνο σεξ” διατηρώντας το εργένικο lifestyle και κάνοντας οικονομία και στα έξοδά του. Η γυναίκα βλέπει την ελεύθερη συμβίωση ως ένα βήμα πιο κοντά στο γάμο.
Μια άλλη άποψη είναι ότι τα άτομα που συμβιώνουν είναι αυτά που δεν θέλουν να παντρευτούν. Αλλά μέσα σε μια ελεύθερη συμβίωση πολλά μπορεί να συμβούν όπως να μείνει η γυναίκα έγκυος. Τότε έρχεται ο γάμος αλλά η πιθανότητα χωρισμού είναι μεγάλη γιατί τα άτομα αυτά δεν είναι κατάλληλα για γάμο. Δεν φταίει λοιπόν η ελεύθερη συμβίωση αλλά το γεγονός ότι επιλέγεται από άτομα που έχουν ένα συγκεκριμένο χαρακτήρα ζωής. Φαίνεται όμως ότι η εξήγηση είναι πιο απλή. Οι αμερικανοί ερευνητές Catherine Cohen και Stacy Kleinbaum συνέκριναν παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που είχαν προηγουμένως συμβιώσει με παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που δεν είχαν συμβιώσει. Τα ζευγάρια κάθισαν σε ένα σαλόνι όπου είχαν τοποθετηθεί βιντεοκάμερες και τους ζητήθηκε να μιλήσουν για κάποιες πτυχές του γάμου τους. Οι ερευνητές βρήκαν ότι αυτοί που είχαν περάσει προηγουμένως από το στάδιο της ελεύθερης συμβίωσης είχαν λιγότερο θετική συμπεριφορά στην επίλυση των προβλημάτων και μικρότερη συνεννόηση μεταξύ τους. Το συμπέρασμα ήταν ότι η ελεύθερη συμβίωση πρακτικά “μετράει” ως γάμος μεταξύ των ζευγαριών και επειδή ο γάμος αργά ή γρήγορα φθείρει τις σχέσεις, τα παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που έχουν προηγουμένως συμβιώσει έχουν απλώς υποστεί μεγαλύτερη φθορά κάτι που τα φέρνει πιο γρήγορα στο χωρισμό.
Ο λόγος που αυξάνονται οι ελεύθερες συμβιώσεις είναι ότι υποχωρεί ο γάμος. Το 1970 στις ΗΠΑ υπήρχαν 21 εκατομμύρια άνθρωποι που δεν είχαν παντρευτεί ποτέ στη ζωή τους ενώ το 2007 υπήρχαν πάνω από 60 εκατομμύρια. Σ’ αυτή τη περίοδο, τα ετερόφυλα ζευγάρια που συμβιώνουν αυξήθηκαν από 500,000 σε 7 εκατομμύρια. Καθώς ο γάμος γίνεται όλο και λιγότερο δημοφιλής – μόνο στα γκέϊ ζευγάρια αυξάνεται –οι ψυχολόγοι είδαν αρχικά την ελεύθερη συμβίωση ως μια πρόβα γάμου που θα μείωνε στη συνέχεια τις πιθανότητες διαζυγίου. Άρχισε όμως να φαίνεται ότι η ελεύθερη συμβίωση κάθε άλλο παρά λειτουργεί ως προγαμιαίο στάδιο αλλά ως αντικατάσταση του γάμου.
Η λογική “δοκίμασε πριν αγοράσεις” δεν λειτουργεί υπέρ του γάμου και όσοι συμβιώνουν έχουν μικρή πιθανότητα να παντρευτούν. Τελικά, μόνο το 26% των γυναικών και το 19% των ανδρών παντρεύονται το άτομο με το οποίο συμβίωσαν. Πάει κόντρα στη λογική αλλά όποιος θέλει να παντρευτεί καλύτερα να αποφύγει την ελεύθερη συμβίωση. Καθώς λίγες ελεύθερες σχέσεις καταλήγουν σε γάμο, οι χριστιανικές εκκλησίες προέτρεψαν τους πιστούς να μη συμβιώνουν, άλλωστε είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι για τη Βίβλο η συμβίωση χωρίς γάμο είναι αμαρτία. Στην προς Εβραίους επιστολή αναφέρεται: «Άξιος τιμής ας είναι ο γάμος από όλους και το συζυγικό κρεβάτι αμόλυντο, γιατί πόρνους και μοιχούς θα τους κρίνει ο Θεός».
Οι έρευνες έδειξαν επίσης ότι τα ζευγάρια που κατέληξαν σε γάμο ύστερα από ελεύθερη συμβίωση, έχουν μεγάλη πιθανότητα να χωρίσουν που φτάνει το 57% στα πρώτα 10 χρόνια γάμου. Από την άλλη μεριά, τα ζευγάρια που παντρεύτηκαν χωρίς να έχουν συμβιώσει, τα πάνε πολύ καλύτερα έχοντας πιθανότητα χωρισμού μόνο 30%. Οι ερευνητές έψαξαν να βρουν γιατί η ελεύθερη συμβίωση δεν λειτουργεί υπέρ του γάμου. Κατά μία άποψη, αυτό συμβαίνει επειδή άντρες και γυναίκες επιζητούν διαφορετικά πράγματα από την ελεύθερη συμβίωση. Ο άντρας επιδιώκει το “έξυπνο σεξ” διατηρώντας το εργένικο lifestyle και κάνοντας οικονομία και στα έξοδά του. Η γυναίκα βλέπει την ελεύθερη συμβίωση ως ένα βήμα πιο κοντά στο γάμο.
Μια άλλη άποψη είναι ότι τα άτομα που συμβιώνουν είναι αυτά που δεν θέλουν να παντρευτούν. Αλλά μέσα σε μια ελεύθερη συμβίωση πολλά μπορεί να συμβούν όπως να μείνει η γυναίκα έγκυος. Τότε έρχεται ο γάμος αλλά η πιθανότητα χωρισμού είναι μεγάλη γιατί τα άτομα αυτά δεν είναι κατάλληλα για γάμο. Δεν φταίει λοιπόν η ελεύθερη συμβίωση αλλά το γεγονός ότι επιλέγεται από άτομα που έχουν ένα συγκεκριμένο χαρακτήρα ζωής. Φαίνεται όμως ότι η εξήγηση είναι πιο απλή. Οι αμερικανοί ερευνητές Catherine Cohen και Stacy Kleinbaum συνέκριναν παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που είχαν προηγουμένως συμβιώσει με παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που δεν είχαν συμβιώσει. Τα ζευγάρια κάθισαν σε ένα σαλόνι όπου είχαν τοποθετηθεί βιντεοκάμερες και τους ζητήθηκε να μιλήσουν για κάποιες πτυχές του γάμου τους. Οι ερευνητές βρήκαν ότι αυτοί που είχαν περάσει προηγουμένως από το στάδιο της ελεύθερης συμβίωσης είχαν λιγότερο θετική συμπεριφορά στην επίλυση των προβλημάτων και μικρότερη συνεννόηση μεταξύ τους. Το συμπέρασμα ήταν ότι η ελεύθερη συμβίωση πρακτικά “μετράει” ως γάμος μεταξύ των ζευγαριών και επειδή ο γάμος αργά ή γρήγορα φθείρει τις σχέσεις, τα παντρεμένα ζευγάρια που έχουν προηγουμένως συμβιώσει έχουν απλώς υποστεί μεγαλύτερη φθορά κάτι που τα φέρνει πιο γρήγορα στο χωρισμό.
Το φιλί είναι πράγματι θέμα χημείας
Το φιλί ενεργοποιεί μια σειρά πολύπλοκων χημικών αντιδράσεων και σε πολλές περιπτώσεις ένα κακό φιλί μπορεί όντως να καταδικάσει μια σχέση από την αρχή της.
"Ενα φιλί είναι ο μηχανισμός για την αξιολόγηση ενός συντρόφου", εξηγεί η Ελεν Φίσερ του πανεπιστημίου Rutgers στο Νιου Τζέρσι, η οποία το περασμένο Σάββατο παρουσίασε τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνάς της στο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ενωσης για την Πρόοδο της Επιστήμης στο Σικάγο.
Η Φίσερ, ανθρωπολόγος, είπε στο συνέδριο ότι το φιλί είναι κάτι που συναντάνται στο 90% των κοινωνιών, αλλά οι επιστήμονες μόλις έχουν ξεκινήσει να κατανοούν την επιστήμη του φιλιού.
Μία θεωρία θέλει το φιλί να αποσκοπεί στην προώθηση των ανθρώπινων δεσμών, σύμφωνα με την Γουέντι Χιλ, ερευνήτρια στο κολλέγιο Lafayette της Πενσιλβάνια, η οποία παρουσίασε τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνάς της, αλλά και του πειράματος που πραγματοποίησε, στους συνέδρους.
Η Χιλ αναζήτησε τις αλλαγές στα επίπεδα της ωκυτοκίνης, μιας ορμόνης "της αγάπης" που συνδέεται με αισθήματα σεξουαλικής ικανοποίησης, δεσμού και της μητρικής φροντίδας.
Δεδομένου ότι η ωκυτοκίνη είναι γνωστό ότι οδηγεί στη μείωση της ορμόνης του στρες, της κορτιζόλης, η Χιλ αποφάσισε να εξετάσει και τη λειτουργία της συγκεκριμένης ορμόνης.
Μελέτησε 15 ζευγάρια ηλικίας 18 με 22 ετών, που φοιτούν στο πανεπιστήμιο.
Τους ζητήθηκε είτε να πάνε μέσα σε ένα δωμάτιο του πανεπιστημίου και να φιληθούν, είτε να κρατούν ο ένας το χέρι του άλλου για 15 λεπτά.
Σε δείγματα αίματος και σιέλου που ελήφθησαν από τους άνδρες στην "ομάδα του φιλιού" εντοπίστηκε υπερέκκριση της ωκυτοκίνης, αλλά στις γυναίκες τα επίπεδα αυτής της ορμόνης εμφανίστηκαν να υποχωρούν.
"Τα επίπεδα της κορτιζόλης μειώθηκαν σε όλους", είπε η Χιλ. Από την πλευρά της, η Φίσερ δήλωσε ότι το φιλί ενεργοποιεί την έκκριση διαφορετικών χημικών, που διεγείρουν διαφορετικές περιοχές του εγκεφάλου.
"Εχουμε αποδείξεις ότι το σίελο περιέχει τεστοστερόνη.
Και υπάρχουν όντως στοιχεία που δείχνουν ότι στους άνδρες αρέσουν πιο πολύ τα υγρά φιλιά.
Αυτό αποδεικνύει ότι, υποσυνείδητα, προσπαθούν να μεταφέρουν τεστοστερόνη για να διεγείρουν το σεξουαλικό ένστικτο στις γυναίκες", σημειώνει η Φίσερ.
"Ενα φιλί είναι ο μηχανισμός για την αξιολόγηση ενός συντρόφου", εξηγεί η Ελεν Φίσερ του πανεπιστημίου Rutgers στο Νιου Τζέρσι, η οποία το περασμένο Σάββατο παρουσίασε τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνάς της στο συνέδριο της Αμερικανικής Ενωσης για την Πρόοδο της Επιστήμης στο Σικάγο.
Η Φίσερ, ανθρωπολόγος, είπε στο συνέδριο ότι το φιλί είναι κάτι που συναντάνται στο 90% των κοινωνιών, αλλά οι επιστήμονες μόλις έχουν ξεκινήσει να κατανοούν την επιστήμη του φιλιού.
Μία θεωρία θέλει το φιλί να αποσκοπεί στην προώθηση των ανθρώπινων δεσμών, σύμφωνα με την Γουέντι Χιλ, ερευνήτρια στο κολλέγιο Lafayette της Πενσιλβάνια, η οποία παρουσίασε τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνάς της, αλλά και του πειράματος που πραγματοποίησε, στους συνέδρους.
Η Χιλ αναζήτησε τις αλλαγές στα επίπεδα της ωκυτοκίνης, μιας ορμόνης "της αγάπης" που συνδέεται με αισθήματα σεξουαλικής ικανοποίησης, δεσμού και της μητρικής φροντίδας.
Δεδομένου ότι η ωκυτοκίνη είναι γνωστό ότι οδηγεί στη μείωση της ορμόνης του στρες, της κορτιζόλης, η Χιλ αποφάσισε να εξετάσει και τη λειτουργία της συγκεκριμένης ορμόνης.
Μελέτησε 15 ζευγάρια ηλικίας 18 με 22 ετών, που φοιτούν στο πανεπιστήμιο.
Τους ζητήθηκε είτε να πάνε μέσα σε ένα δωμάτιο του πανεπιστημίου και να φιληθούν, είτε να κρατούν ο ένας το χέρι του άλλου για 15 λεπτά.
Σε δείγματα αίματος και σιέλου που ελήφθησαν από τους άνδρες στην "ομάδα του φιλιού" εντοπίστηκε υπερέκκριση της ωκυτοκίνης, αλλά στις γυναίκες τα επίπεδα αυτής της ορμόνης εμφανίστηκαν να υποχωρούν.
"Τα επίπεδα της κορτιζόλης μειώθηκαν σε όλους", είπε η Χιλ. Από την πλευρά της, η Φίσερ δήλωσε ότι το φιλί ενεργοποιεί την έκκριση διαφορετικών χημικών, που διεγείρουν διαφορετικές περιοχές του εγκεφάλου.
"Εχουμε αποδείξεις ότι το σίελο περιέχει τεστοστερόνη.
Και υπάρχουν όντως στοιχεία που δείχνουν ότι στους άνδρες αρέσουν πιο πολύ τα υγρά φιλιά.
Αυτό αποδεικνύει ότι, υποσυνείδητα, προσπαθούν να μεταφέρουν τεστοστερόνη για να διεγείρουν το σεξουαλικό ένστικτο στις γυναίκες", σημειώνει η Φίσερ.
Feb 12, 2009
O γάμος σκοτώνει το σεξ
Μετά από τα πρώτα επτά χρόνια, ο γάμος γίνεται… “λευκός” για πολλά ζευγάρια στην Ελλάδα. Στην αρχή τα ζευγάρια απολαμβάνουν το σεξ σχεδόν καθημερινά και την πρώτη διετία του γάμου οι σεξουαλικές επαφές είναι κατά μέσο όρο 13 φορές το μήνα. Μετά αρχίζει η “αραίωση” και τον πέμπτο χρόνο του γάμου το σεξ περιορίζεται στις 4 φορές το μήνα. Τον έβδομο χρόνο τα πράγματα φτάνουν σε οριακό σημείο και φαίνεται πως μια φορά το μήνα είναι αρκετή. Αυτά τα στοιχεία προέκυψαν από μια μεγάλη έρευνα ανάμεσα σε 18.000 ζευγάρια κάτω των 50 ετών που διεξήχθη από την Εταιρεία Μελέτης Ανθρώπινης Σεξουαλικότητας. Το συμπέρασμα των ερευνητών ήταν ότι «τo σεξ είναι σήμερα ο μεγάλος απών από την καθημερινότητα του γάμου».
Ο έβδομος χρόνος του γάμου φαίνεται πως είναι μια κρίσιμη καμπή στην ερωτική ζωή των παντρεμένων που σηματοδοτεί την αντίστροφη μέτρηση. Τα ζευγάρια είτε εξοικειώνονται με την παραίτηση από το σεξ είτε αναζητούν νέους ερωτικούς συντρόφους. Πιο τολμηρή στην αναζήτηση νέου συντρόφου είναι η Ελληνίδα, παρότι παρουσιάζει μια κατακόρυφη πτώση στην ερωτική επιθυμία μέσα στο γάμο, ειδικά όταν υπάρχουν παιδιά.
Τα πρώτα χρόνια του γάμου η Ελληνίδα σπάνια απατά το σύντροφό της αλλά τον έβδομο χρόνο έχει πολύ λιγότερες αναστολές. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, τα δύο πρώτα χρόνια το 19,5% των ανδρών και μόνο το 6% των γυναικών δηλώνουν ότι απιστούν αλλά τα ποσοστά αυτά τον έβδομο χρόνο είναι 56,5% για τους άνδρες και 64,5% για τις γυναίκες. Τελικά η απιστία φέρνει το διαζύγιο που είναι ευκολότερο όταν τα ζευγάρια αισθάνονται ότι μπορούν να ξαναφτιάξουν την κοινωνική τους ζωή – συνήθως στις ηλικίες μεταξύ 35-39 ετών.
Κάτι που έχει ενδιαφέρον είναι ότι οι Θεσσαλονικείς καταλήγουν πιο συχνά στο διαζύγιο από τους Αθηναίους. Σύμφωνα με δικηγορικές εκτιμήσεις η αναλογία διαζυγίων προς γάμους στη Θεσσαλονίκη είναι 1 προς 2 ενώ στην Αθήνα είναι 1 προς 3.
Προβλήματα δηλώνουν οι Ελληνίδες
Μια έρευνα που βασίστηκε σε απαντήσεις περισσότερων από 10.000 γυναικών, κατέγραψε ότι 1 στις 4 Ελληνίδες έχει μειωμένη επιθυμία για ερωτική επαφή. Από αυτές που δήλωσαν απροθυμία για σεξ, οι 6 στις 10 είναι παντρεμένες. Φαίνεται πάντως ότι το έλλειμμα σεξουαλικής επιθυμίας των Ελληνίδων οφείλεται σε ψυχολογικούς λόγους διότι το 80% έχει ικανοποιητικό οργασμό. Οι ερευνητές είπαν ότι προφανώς οι Ελληνίδες προσδοκούν μια καλύτερη σεξουαλική ζωή στο γάμο αλλά δεν την εισπράττουν με αποτέλεσμα να “μπλοκάρουν” από το πρώτο βήμα της σεξουαλικής επαφής που είναι η επιθυμία. Αυτό δημιουργεί προβλήματα στη διάρκεια της ερωτικής πράξης και τελικά το 13% των Ελληνίδων βιώνουν σωματικό πόνο που τις εμποδίζει να χαρούν το σεξ.
Ηθικόν ακμαιότατον δηλώνουν οι Έλληνες
Μια πρόσφατη έρευνα έδειξε ότι οι Έλληνες παραμένουν σεξουαλικά δραστήριοι ακόμα και σε προχωρημένη ηλικία. Η έρευνα έγινε επί 1.200 ανδρών ηλικίας 60 - 80 ετών εκ των οποίων οι μισοί δήλωσαν ότι έχουν επιθυμία για 15-20 σεξουαλικές επαφές το μήνα. Στην πράξη βέβαια μόνο το 8% των ανδρών δήλωσε ότι κάνει σεξ πάνω από 20 φορές το μήνα αλλά κι αυτό το ποσοστό δεν είναι καθόλου ευκαταφρόνητο για την τρίτη ηλικία. Ας σημειωθεί πάντως ότι στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν άτομα που δεν είχαν προβλήματα υγείας. Τελικά, οι ερευνητές συμπέραναν ότι ο υγιής άνδρας δεν αναστέλλει την ερωτική του δραστηριότητα και μπορεί να έχει καλή σεξουαλική ζωή μέχρι τα βαθιά του γεράματα.
Ο έβδομος χρόνος του γάμου φαίνεται πως είναι μια κρίσιμη καμπή στην ερωτική ζωή των παντρεμένων που σηματοδοτεί την αντίστροφη μέτρηση. Τα ζευγάρια είτε εξοικειώνονται με την παραίτηση από το σεξ είτε αναζητούν νέους ερωτικούς συντρόφους. Πιο τολμηρή στην αναζήτηση νέου συντρόφου είναι η Ελληνίδα, παρότι παρουσιάζει μια κατακόρυφη πτώση στην ερωτική επιθυμία μέσα στο γάμο, ειδικά όταν υπάρχουν παιδιά.
Τα πρώτα χρόνια του γάμου η Ελληνίδα σπάνια απατά το σύντροφό της αλλά τον έβδομο χρόνο έχει πολύ λιγότερες αναστολές. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, τα δύο πρώτα χρόνια το 19,5% των ανδρών και μόνο το 6% των γυναικών δηλώνουν ότι απιστούν αλλά τα ποσοστά αυτά τον έβδομο χρόνο είναι 56,5% για τους άνδρες και 64,5% για τις γυναίκες. Τελικά η απιστία φέρνει το διαζύγιο που είναι ευκολότερο όταν τα ζευγάρια αισθάνονται ότι μπορούν να ξαναφτιάξουν την κοινωνική τους ζωή – συνήθως στις ηλικίες μεταξύ 35-39 ετών.
Κάτι που έχει ενδιαφέρον είναι ότι οι Θεσσαλονικείς καταλήγουν πιο συχνά στο διαζύγιο από τους Αθηναίους. Σύμφωνα με δικηγορικές εκτιμήσεις η αναλογία διαζυγίων προς γάμους στη Θεσσαλονίκη είναι 1 προς 2 ενώ στην Αθήνα είναι 1 προς 3.
Προβλήματα δηλώνουν οι Ελληνίδες
Μια έρευνα που βασίστηκε σε απαντήσεις περισσότερων από 10.000 γυναικών, κατέγραψε ότι 1 στις 4 Ελληνίδες έχει μειωμένη επιθυμία για ερωτική επαφή. Από αυτές που δήλωσαν απροθυμία για σεξ, οι 6 στις 10 είναι παντρεμένες. Φαίνεται πάντως ότι το έλλειμμα σεξουαλικής επιθυμίας των Ελληνίδων οφείλεται σε ψυχολογικούς λόγους διότι το 80% έχει ικανοποιητικό οργασμό. Οι ερευνητές είπαν ότι προφανώς οι Ελληνίδες προσδοκούν μια καλύτερη σεξουαλική ζωή στο γάμο αλλά δεν την εισπράττουν με αποτέλεσμα να “μπλοκάρουν” από το πρώτο βήμα της σεξουαλικής επαφής που είναι η επιθυμία. Αυτό δημιουργεί προβλήματα στη διάρκεια της ερωτικής πράξης και τελικά το 13% των Ελληνίδων βιώνουν σωματικό πόνο που τις εμποδίζει να χαρούν το σεξ.
Ηθικόν ακμαιότατον δηλώνουν οι Έλληνες
Μια πρόσφατη έρευνα έδειξε ότι οι Έλληνες παραμένουν σεξουαλικά δραστήριοι ακόμα και σε προχωρημένη ηλικία. Η έρευνα έγινε επί 1.200 ανδρών ηλικίας 60 - 80 ετών εκ των οποίων οι μισοί δήλωσαν ότι έχουν επιθυμία για 15-20 σεξουαλικές επαφές το μήνα. Στην πράξη βέβαια μόνο το 8% των ανδρών δήλωσε ότι κάνει σεξ πάνω από 20 φορές το μήνα αλλά κι αυτό το ποσοστό δεν είναι καθόλου ευκαταφρόνητο για την τρίτη ηλικία. Ας σημειωθεί πάντως ότι στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν άτομα που δεν είχαν προβλήματα υγείας. Τελικά, οι ερευνητές συμπέραναν ότι ο υγιής άνδρας δεν αναστέλλει την ερωτική του δραστηριότητα και μπορεί να έχει καλή σεξουαλική ζωή μέχρι τα βαθιά του γεράματα.
Feb 10, 2009
Arthritis therapies 'ineffective'
Most complementary therapies used by people with rheumatoid arthritis are not effective, a study has suggested.
The Arthritis Research Campaign looked at the scientific evidence available for 40 treatments.
Two thirds of treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and a fifth of treatments for osteoarthritis were found to be ineffective by the researchers.
The Arthritis Research Campaign said it wanted people who used the therapies to know what evidence was available.
Osteoarthritis is caused by the breakdown of protective tissue called cartilage in the joints. Inflammation results when the unprotected bones of the joint begin to rub together.
It most commonly affects the joints of the fingers, knees, hips, and spine.
In total, 60% of people with arthritis are thought to use some form of complementary medicine.
Antler velvet
The researchers looked at compounds taken by the mouth or applied to the skin.
Effectiveness is measured by improvements in pain, movement or general well-being.
When the researchers examined treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, they found 13 out of 21 complementary medicines were shown to have no or little effect based on the available evidence.
The 13 were: antler velvet powder, blackcurrant seed oil, collagen, eazmov (a herbal mixture), feverfew (herb), flaxseed oil, green-lipped mussels, homeopathy, reumalex herbal mixture, selenium, the Chinese herb tong luo kai bi, vitamins A, C and E, and willow bark.
However, fish body oil was given five out of five in the report, for being effective in reducing joint pain and stiffness.
In addition, six out of 27 treatments for osteoarthritis were shown to have little or no effect based on the available evidence
Capsaicin gel, made from chilli peppers, proved most effective in relieving pain and joint tenderness.
But the effectiveness of glucosamine, a popular supplement used by people with OA which costs around £10 a month, which researchers have previously said was ineffective, again called into question.
For fibromyalgia, which causes widespread pain in muscles and joints, only four products were assessed, none were found to be highly effective with three medicines scoring two out of five, and the fourth just one.
Side effects
The researchers also examined how safe compounds were.
One - thunder god vine, a traditional Chinese medicine - was given a "red" classification, meaning there were serious safety concerns.
A quarter of the compounds were given an "amber" safety classification, because there were some reported side-effects.
The team said they were unable to evaluate the effectiveness of 36 therapies, including basil, green tea, sarsaparilla and St John's Wort because there was insufficient data.
Professor Gary Macfarlane, from the University of Aberdeen, said while different things worked for different people, "it is useful to also have the scientific evidence available and just as important to know how safe we think they are to use."
Professor Alan Silman, the Arthritis Research Campaign's medical director, added: "We didn't start this saying this was our opportunity to knock complementary medicines.
"The message is not 'don't take them'. The message is 'if you are going to take them, be aware of what the level of evidence is'."
Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, said the report focused on tablets and preparations applied to the skin, missing out therapies such as acupuncture and osteopathy.
"I think what really comes across in this report is how sorely under-researched this area is," he said.
Jane Gray, president, of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists added: "This report is a commendable attempt to provide information on self help products for osteo and rheumatoid arthritis."
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