Do Men See Pretty Women, Crave War?

A guest post by Jean Gogolin of  The Writer’s Clinic

Show a man a picture of a pretty woman, says a Rebecca Coffey piece in the June 11 issue of Scientific American and he’s likely to bet more at the craps table, run a red light, or get the urge to wage war.

Why?

For the same reason bull elephants charge and lions roar:  To say, “Hey — Look what a fearless stud I am!”

The insight, if that’s what it is, comes from a study by Lei Chang, a psychologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, along with colleagues at  China’s Hebei University.

Chang and his fellow psychologists wondered whether clubs and guns are the human equivalent of antlers and horns, helping warriors to beat out more peaceable types in the competition for mates.

And if they are, is that why conquering armies so often rape and pillage? Is that why even groups of chimps go on sex raids?

Is it possible that the reason men wage war is not so much to spread religion or win territory as it is to spread their genes by impregnating females, willing or not?

To test their theory,  Chang’s researchers showed men pictures of women, looking for evidence that the pictures affected their attitudes about war.

It turned out that men did indeed respond to photographs of attractive faces by endorsing statements about war.

Photographs of unattractive women’s faces, on the other hand, didn’t have the same effect at all. And — surprise! — women didn’t lust for war after seeing either attractive or unattractive men.

One Scientific American reader noted that this phenomenon has been observed throughout history “by such diverse elements as Herodotus  (the ancient Greek often called the world’s first historian) and CNN,” calling it “simply the human condition.”

But my friend Michael thinks his favorite Robin Williams quote probably says it best:

“God gave men both a penis and a brain, but not enough blood supply to run both at the same time.”

What are your thoughts about this?

Jean Gogolin is a former corporate speech writer based near Boston who has been a professional writer for longer than she cares to admit.  She’s also a demon cook, a New York Times crossword solver and a choral singer.