An attractive woman makes young men take risks

David Heath
Monday, 22 March 2010 17:09

Science - Health

Recent research has confirmed what we generally assumed.  Young men will take risks to impress a pretty girl.

Work by two researchers from The University of Queensland has clearly demonstrated that the presence of an attractive woman increases risk-taking amongst younger males, presumably of 'breeding' age.

Professor Bill von Hippel and doctoral student Richard Ronay from the School of Psychology at University of Queensland conducted a field experiment with a group of young male skateboarders, discovering that the males took more risks at the skate park when observed by an attractive female staff-member than when observed by a male equivalent.

This increased risk-taking led to both more successes and more crash landings for the female staffer.

The researchers also measured the participants' saliva-borne testosterone and found a direct correlation between the testosterone level and the degree of risk-taking.

The research was conducted on a range of adult skateboarders ranging in age from 18 to 25, with a mean age of 21.58; they were compensated $AU20 for their time.

Participants were asked to perform one 'easy' trick (one which they would expect to successfully complete on most attempts) and one 'difficult' trick (which they were learning and expected to successfully complete on around half of attempts.

Each skateboarder was asked to make ten attempts of each trick while being video-recorded by the male assistant.  After a short break, they were again asked to make the same ten attempts at each trick while being recorded again by the male or instead by the female assistant (who had not been informed of her role in the experiment other than as a video assistant).

What was the outcome?