Forfatterne præsenterer et feltforsøg med skateboardere, der viser, at unge mænds fysiske risikovillighed stiger, når de er i nærvær af en attraktiv kvinde. Dette fører til flere succeser, men også flere fald. Analysen tyder på, at dette øgede risikoadfærd delvist skyldes højere testosteronniveauer hos mændene. Resultaterne antyder, at mænd bruger fysisk risikovillighed som en seksuel udstillingsstrategi.
Titel på undersøgelse:
The Presence of an Attractive Woman Elevates Testosterone and Physical Risk Taking in Young Men.
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Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
The authors report a field experiment with skateboarders that demonstrates that physical risk taking by young men increases in the presence of an attractive female. This increased risk taking leads to more successes but also more crash landings in front of a female observer. Mediational analyses suggest that this increase in risk taking is caused in part by elevated testosterone levels of men who performed in front of the attractive female. In addition, skateboarders’ risk taking was predicted by their performance on a reversal-learning task, reversal-learning performance was disrupted by the presence of the attractive female, and the female’s presence moderated the observed relationship between risk taking and reversal learning. These results suggest that men use physical risk taking as a sexual display strategy, and they provide suggestive evidence regarding possible hormonal and neural mechanisms.