Quickies

Skepchick Quickies, 2.6

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

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8 Comments

  1. Regarding the selfless acts by men, that is the result I would expect from my life experience. I have to admit it, especially when I was single, I would certainly be more selfless and helpful if the woman was more attractive. And, I would definitely be less likely to be selfless with a guy at all.

    Why? Men want attractive women to like them. I think that’s pretty easy to see. Even now, now that I am married and would never stray from my wife, I STILL am friendlier and more selfless around other attractive women. If I’m out and about and my wife isn’t around, I will still always talk to attractive women more readily and I am sure I’d be more apt to be selfless as attractiveness goes up.

    It’s the same reason why some guys try to stack their facebook friends with hot women (yes, ladies, some men actually do this – I’ve heard all about it) (not me, because I was on Facebook for, like, a month, and then I got tired of it and deactivated the account). Men feel more manly if hot women like them and want to be around them.

    My supposition – pure supposition – as it is regarding why women’s behavior did not change regardless of who observed – is this: I would suppose that women generally don’t try to make themselves attractive to men that way. But, men do try to make themselves attractive to women that way. Generally speaking, of course.

    1. //Men want attractive women to like them//

      Yeah, it’s a big self-esteem thing.

    2. Oh, and to be clear – I am sure that if I knew an attractive woman was watching, I would be more selfless – the same reason applies – we want hot women to like us. If we act nicely, then they may be more likely to think we’re good.

      It’s not so much of a conscious thing to be deceptive, I think. I think it is more of an impulse to want to be found to be attractive by women.

  2. I don’t know if that study was done well, but I certainly have increased certain types of good behavior if I thought there was a direct chance at copulation.

    Such acts have gone as far as organizing fundraisers, trying to become not-horrible at yoga, cooking special food, etc…

    It’s pretty amazing how instinctively as a guy you will do things that basically just amount to puffing up your feathers.

    1. Most of us men want to be the guy that women flock to and around. It’s certainly an ego thing, and a “how can I increase the likelihood of having sex” thing.

      1. Hmm, well self-esteem & desire of sex plays into it, but more often than that, I find myself really captivated by a particular woman (a mix of her looks & personality) and I’ll go all out to impress her.

        Part of the song and dance is that women make a lot of strong judgements about you based upon your first few actions you take and there’s a lot of competition for that one you like, so it pays to put a little extra into the mating dance.

  3. I found the article and headline,”Your state sucks at science,” really misleading when I first read it on io9. The study evaluated the curriculum standards set by each state, not the actual performance of students. So it’s quite likely that a state could have top-notch bureaucrats setting excellent standards (and receive a high grade in this study), but teachers not teaching well and students not learning.

  4. That state/science chart is so bad I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it for fear I might catch something.

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