Male Brains Turn Women With Bikinis Into Objects

12:07 pm EST February 19th, 2009 | News | 12 Comments

Science marches on.

Sexy women in bikinis really do inspire some men to see them as objects, according to a new study of male behavior.

hilary duffBrain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.

Men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as ‘I push, I grasp, I handle,’ said lead researcher Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University.

And in a ‘shocking’ finding, Fiske noted, some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another’s intentions.

This means that these men see women ‘as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds,’ Fiske said. ‘The lack of activation in this social cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens.’

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12 Responses to “Male Brains Turn Women With Bikinis Into Objects”

  1. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    February 19, 2009 at 3:07 pm

    Here’s the thing… A picture of a woman in a Bikini is an object.

    Now, if it was a real woman who would hold a conversation with the men, and the result were the same, then I would be intrigued by the results.

  2. Chris Russell says:
    February 19, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    I’m no scientist, but I’m guessing they controlled for this by showing pictures of people clothed differently.

  3. Chris Russell says:
    February 19, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    I just read the article, and it turns out they did have a fully-clothed photo set for comparison.

    Interestingly, though, they chose to crop the subjects’ heads out of the bikini photos. I wonder if they did the same for all the pictures. If not, I could definitely see that change affecting the outcome.

  4. Quaker in a Basement says:
    February 19, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    If a similar study were done with women, Fiske told National Geographic News, it would be hard to predict whether a woman shown a scantily clad male body would dehumanize him in the same way.

    Bah!

    In other words, we can’t tell if this behavior is male, straight-male, straight-male/gay-female, or just human. The fact that the photos of bikini-clad women cropped out their heads is also suspect.

    There are too many loose ends here.

    Repeat the study, showing the same photo set to straight females. Repeat the study, showing the same photo set to lesbians. Repeat the study, showing similar photos of men to straight men.

    Then there might be something worth discussing.

  5. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    February 19, 2009 at 5:09 pm

    Chris Russell says: “I’m no scientist, but I’m guessing they controlled for this by showing pictures of people clothed differently.”

    But you are going to react differently to a picture than you would a live person.

    Even a still picture and a movie will change how you react.

  6. Oliver Willis says:
    February 19, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Yes, but then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to post a bikini pic today, would i?

  7. Duros62 says:
    February 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Ceci n’est pa une femme.

  8. Duros62 says:
    February 19, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    Yes, but then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to post a bikini pic today, would i?

    Ha! Like you need an excuse with this crowd. :-)

  9. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    February 19, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    “Yes, but then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to post a bikini pic today, would i?”

    And I appreciate you choosing Hilary Duff.

    On a side note, the last contest I ever won was for a couple Hilary Duff CDs.

  10. bikelib says:
    February 19, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    I’m sorry, Oliver, were you saying something?

  11. Porlock Junior says:
    February 20, 2009 at 12:45 am

    “Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.”
    Heh — he said tool!

  12. bryan says:
    February 20, 2009 at 6:28 am

    Duros, kudos to you for mentioning Rene Magritte, my favourite surrealist (The Healer – just great), favourite Belgian (not a difficult title to win) and a man who makes Dali look like a hack.