If you're happy and you know it don't ask her out

A new article in Emotion (APA DOI:10.1037/a0022902) reveals what we all have known for ages: Nice guys get stepped on, spit at, and generally hated by women everywhere finish last. In this study, individuals from several sample groups (including undergraduates and members of social networking sites) were asked to rate the sexual attractiveness of the opposite sex. The end result? Men like their women happy, and women like their men to have some pride. We at the village are sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the photos of prideful men are mostly shirtless. Read the full story at the UBC press release.

(update 2010-05-28): Thanks to a friendly tip, we are happy to report this story has made the front page of the American Psychology Association. Look for the May 24th Article "Brooding Men".

Comments

  1. HeidiMay 24, 2011 at 7:52 PM

    Part of me refuses to believe this is true! Nice guys are my favorite!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HeidiMay 24, 2011 at 7:54 PM

    Hmmm...that "pride" picture is kind of attractive, though, while the happy one is a wee bit creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. cbeckMay 24, 2011 at 11:09 PM

    My sentiments exactly! Top notch scientific method at work, no?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Elly LouMay 25, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    So the actual choices are athletes vs creepy old dudes with skin cancer in hard hats? Add my name to column pride.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JillMay 26, 2011 at 6:12 AM

    Yeah, I don't know. I think this says as much about the types of photos that were used (at least for the men) than what the females prefer. The photos are kind of small, but the ones in the "pride" section just seem like better photos. The "neutral" show no emotion whatsoever, they're all more or less head or head and shoulders. Which I guess is supposed to be the point, but doesn't really make for an attractive photo. And the shame photos, well...maybe men just look better playing sports than they do sitting with their legs spread wide open.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MelindaMay 26, 2011 at 9:19 AM

    I like the nice guys with their shirts on. Who were these woman polled? :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. cbeckMay 27, 2011 at 10:00 AM

    >> Jill said: "The photos are kind of small, but the ones in the "pride" section just seem like better photos."

    This 'could' just be an issue of poor selection of sample photos, but I suspect not. Looking at those samples again, I wonder if it speaks more to preference of body type than emotional state... If they had matched similar body type and then varied the apparent emotions of the samples, I believe that would have been a better experimental design. Also, they should have recruited a set of models from the student body or an agency and had them take on the different poses so that at least each sample set would have the same individuals. But instead, the selected images were from a google image search and other image data bases.

    >> Melinda said: "I like the nice guys with their shirts on. Who were these woman polled?"

    Glad to know there are some rational folks out there! Reading their manuscript, I believe "young'uns" is the best descriptor of who was polled.

    ReplyDelete
  8. cbeckMay 27, 2011 at 10:02 AM

    Also, if anyone is interested, the revised manuscript is available on the right side of the press release page. It doesn't look like any login is required to read it, but I am not positive on that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Indigo RothJuly 8, 2011 at 8:30 AM

    Hey 'beck,

    I've often thought that our friends are the people we are best suited to be with, as we've probably chosen each other for compatibility with our personality types.

    Unfortunately, there's probably little overlap between THAT set of people and the OTHER set of people that we are naturally attracted to.

    I suspect the "best" relationships happen when the two sets overlap.

    I could probably have said it simply as - "friends first, relationship later" but I'm a sucker for a Venn diagram.

    Indigo

    ReplyDelete

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