Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
May 10, 2007 Author: By Roger Highfield
Men find photos of the opposite sex much more "rewarding" than women, new research claims today.
According to the study men take the same pleasure out of looking at an attractive female form as they do from having a curry or making money whereas women do not take any significant reward from looking at pictures of men.
The survey published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B said that brain scan studies show that "reward centres" are triggered in men when they gaze at a woman's face or body whereas they are not in females. It also shows men are more likely to make an effort to view pictures of the opposite sex and pay out money.
The findings shed light on why men are much greater consumers of pornography than women and why sales of Playboy have always exceeded those of Playgirl, according to Dr Benjamin Hayden at the Centre for Neuroeconomic Studies, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina.
"One natural inference is that men are more willing to pay to see these images," he told The Daily Telegraph.
Previous research has identified several core characteristics of rewards. Economists have shown that people tend to be impulsive, meaning they prefer rewards sooner than later, and that they are less impulsive when rewards are bigger.
This study shows that photos follow the same principles, and that more attractive photos act like larger rewards, said Dr Hayden. Rewards also offer incentives to work harder and they can be traded for other kinds of rewards, which is why men exchange money for pictures of naked women.
The team gave 20 heterosexual men and 20 women opportunity to view non pornographic photos of members of the opposite sex and tested if money would offer as much reward, as well as whether people would work harder on a computer to see a photo they were interested in.
Men were significantly more patient than women when choosing to view attractive females than when choosing to view neutral or unattractive females.
"For men, the reward of seeing a woman is strongly influenced by physical attractiveness, but for women physical attractiveness has little or no impact," said Dr Hayden.
