Is more more, or is more less? We look at two very different experiments about quantity, quality, and sex. How does the type and amount of porn a man views influence how much semen he produces? And do women from around the world prefer a taller or a shorter man?
Shaq is over 2ft taller than his on-off girlfriend, reality TV star "Hoopz". This difference in height is larger than in most couples, but Western women do seem to prefer taller men. Do women from non-Western societies share their predilection?
The articles covered in the show:
Joseph, P. N., Sharma, R. K., Agarwal, A., & Sirot, L. K. (in press). Men ejaculate larger volumes of semen, more motile sperm, and more quickly when exposed to images of novel women. Evolutionary Psychological Science. Read summary
Sorokowski, P., Sorokowska, A., Butovskaya, M., Stulp, G., Huanca, T., & Fink, B. (2015). Body height preferences and actual dimorphism in stature between partners in two non-Western societies (Hadza and Tsimane’). Evolutionary Psychology, 13(2), 455-469. Read summary
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Why do women have sex? We find out, using the YSEX? questionnaire . Also, how to stop the ‘thin ideal’ messing with our minds. And forget St...
Why do women have sex? We find out, using the YSEX? questionnaire. Also, how to stop the ‘thin ideal’ messing with our minds. And forget Star Wars - it’s time for Sperm Wars: are men turned on by pornography that depicts ‘sperm competition’?
Most women in the media are skinny, and consumers are taking this 'thin ideal' to heart. But what happens if we tell them that men prefer larger women?
The articles covered in the show:
Armstrong, H. L., & Reissing, E. D. (in press). Women’s motivations to have sex in casual and committed relationships with male and female partners. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Read summary
Meltzer, A. L., & McNulty, J. K. (in press). Telling women that men desire women with bodies larger than the thin-ideal improves women’s body satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science. Read summary
Prokop, P. (2015). Perception of intensity of sperm competition on the part of males. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 99-103. Read summary
Friday, July 04, 2014
How to get a man’s sperm swimming like a shoal of miniature Michael Phelpses, and why expensive handbags are a weapon of war. We also find o...
How to get a man’s sperm swimming like a shoal of miniature Michael Phelpses, and why expensive handbags are a weapon of war. We also find out what time of the month the idea of incest is most likely to make you throw up.
New research shows that it's not just men who get excited by attractive women: their sperm do too.
The articles covered in the show:
Antfolk, J., Lieberman, D., Albrecht, A., & Santtila, P. (2014). The self-regulation effect of fertility status on inbreeding aversion: When fertile, disgust increases more in response to descriptions of one’s own than of other’s inbreeding. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(3), 621-631. Read paper
Hudders, L., De Backer, C., Fisher, M., & Vyncke, P. (2014). The rival wears Prada: Luxury consumption as a female competition strategy. Evolutionary Psychology. Read paper
Leivers, S., Rhodes, G., & Simmons, L. W. (in press). Context-dependent relationship between a composite measure of men’s mate value and ejaculate quality. Behavioral Ecology. Read summary
And here's that TED talk I mentioned in the podcast. Kristina Durante talks about how women's interest in mating, consumerism, and female-female competition vary over their ovulatory cycle.
This is the archive for the Psychology of Attractiveness Podcast, a science show covering the most interesting and cutting edge research on the psychology of attraction and relationships. The podcast was active between 2009 and 2019. All episodes remain available.
The podcast was produced by Dr Robert Burriss, a psychologist who has held research posts at universities in the UK, USA, and Switzerland.
