Women Smell Men, Drink More. What Could Go Wrong?

Exposure to male sexual scents (androstenone) influences women’s drinking 

Robin Tan & Mark Goldman
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
December 2017, Pages 456-465

Abstract: In a demonstration of a heretofore unknown motivational pathway for alcohol consumption, we recently showed that exposure to scents emitted by human females during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle could increase men’s drinking. The current study examined the reverse: whether exposure to male sexual scents (androstenone) would increase women’s drinking. One hundred three female participants were primed with either androstenone or a control prime (plain water) camouflaged as a men’s “cologne.” They then completed a laboratory assessment of beer consumption and related measures. (Nonalcoholic beer was used for methodological and safety reasons.) Results indicated that females exposed to the androstenone prime drank significantly more than those exposed to the control prime. Social and sexual expectancies taken subsequent to drinking (to avoid unwanted manipulation influences) were correlated with drinking in the primed group but not in the neutral group, supporting the idea that information-processing pathways related to alcohol use had been engaged in the primed group. Few females were ovulating, precluding assessment of the effects of fertility on this process. Because of the centrality of sexual signaling to fundamental evolutionary/biological forces, these results indicate a potentially powerful influence on alcohol consumption that calls for continued investigation.

Oh, She's Mad....

This is amazing.  Even WOMEN think that the default setting for women is "angry."

Is She Angry? (Sexually Desirable) Women “See” Anger on Female Faces 

Jaimie Arona Krems et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming

Abstract: Intrasexual conflict may pose unique challenges for women. Whereas men’s aggression tends to be physical and direct, women’s tends to be relational and indirect, particularly when directed toward other women. Moreover, women’s expressions of anger are often suppressed, perhaps particularly when other women are the targets. Thus, women may face difficulty anticipating anger and anger-based aggression from other women. How might women manage this challenge? The functional projection of emotion may facilitate useful behavior; for instance, “seeing” anger on people believed to pose threats to physical safety may help perceivers preempt or avoid physical harm. Given the threats that women face, we predicted that (a) women are biased to “see” anger on neutral female (but not male) faces and that (b) women who are likely targets of intrasexual aggression (i.e., sexually desirable or available women) show an exaggerated bias. We report three studies that support these hypotheses and, more broadly, illustrate the value of a functional approach to social cognition.

Sharing and Dating

"What's your price?" is a dating site, sort of.  You decide what it is.

I wonder if the name comes from this famous (and apocryphal) anecdote.   I have heard Churchill, but I think "Lord Beaverbrook" is my new favorite source for something that the source never said. 

How different from paying for dinner, the show, and maybe some jewelry?  Yes, actually, it is.

First Moon Party

This is uncomfortable and funny.

And yet another reason that I thank merciful God in heaven that we were blessed with boys.

The product is "Hello Flo."  Yes, it is.  And it's a real product.  "Special delivery for your crimson tide."  Gott im Himmel.

Vagina Pants

Note:  NSFW, just for sheer weirdness.

Vagina pants?  Would YOU wear them?

And the matching (in theme) bra.  Nice.

Female Hurricanes: Deadlier?

Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes 

Kiju Jung et al. 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 June 2014, Pages 8782–8787 

Abstract: Do people judge hurricane risks in the context of gender-based expectations? We use more than six decades of death rates from US hurricanes to show that feminine-named hurricanes cause significantly more deaths than do masculine-named hurricanes. Laboratory experiments indicate that this is because hurricane names lead to gender-based expectations about severity and this, in turn, guides respondents’ preparedness to take protective action. This finding indicates an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the gendered naming of hurricanes, with important implications for policymakers, media practitioners, and the general public concerning hurricane communication and preparedness.

Do As We Editorialize, Not As We Do

Why was Jill Abramson fired as Executive Editor from the NYTimes?  (I have to admit, I didn't know that it had happened.  I stopped reading the NYTimes on principle after their remarkable--and never corrected--hatchet job on the Duke lacrosse players...)

The story appears to be that she actually believed that the male "Progressives" who run the NYTimes, the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, actually believed the stuff they always say about equal pay for women.

Clearly, they do not.  And if some "girl" does try to the pay she deserves, she is "pushy" and gets fired.  Wow.

With a nod to Susan L.

Embrace those B's, Ladies

I was visiting one of my favorite colleges (Davidson) the other night. Had given a talk, and was having dinner afterwards with some students and faculty.

One young woman mentioned that she done very well in math in high school, and that she wished she had been able to take some math in college.  She was an Econ major, but had taken zero calculus and then took just the one required baby-stats-by-cookbook course.  (UPDATE:  Why so few women economists?)

I asked why she had not "been able" to take any math in college.  I knew for a fact Davidson offered math courses. (In fact, they do stuff like this, there). The young lady, obviously shocked, said, "I might have made a B!  Those are hard courses!"

I couldn't let that go.  I may have pointed out that she had just said that she was "really good" at math, and most people don't say that.  For a woman to say she's really good at math, she must in fact be really good at math.  And I may have said something like this was her only chance at an education, and the ridiculous courses (I may have said "underwater basket-weaving for beginners") she took instead were a giant waste of time.  Who cares if you get an "A" in that crap?  For my big finish, I said "Nobody cares about your G.P.A.  You have wasted more than $150,000 here, avoiding an education."  I may have been a jerk, in other words.


It was quiet for quite a while after that.  It's possible I was out of line.  But it's also possible I was COMPLETELY RIGHT.

Excerpt:

“Maybe women just don’t want to get things wrong,” Goldin hypothesized. “They don’t want to walk around being a B-minus student in something. They want to find something they can be an A student in. They want something where the professor will pat them on the back and say ‘You’re doing so well!’ ” 

“Guys,” she added, “don’t seem to give two damns.” 

So maybe the better question is: Why aren’t men scared off by rigid grading curves? Male students could be more overconfident — effectively, college bros shrug off gentleman’s C’s (or, more often today, gentleman’s B’s) as unrepresentative of their true brilliance.

Please spread the word.  The "game" in college is NOT to maximize GPA.  It's to maximize education, subject to the constraint of maintaining a decent GPA.

My own rule in graduate admissions:  never accept anyone with a 4.0.  And it's better if the person has gotten at least one "C."  If there is no C in the record, it means the person is going to be just another loser who is really good at taking courses.  If you could get a job taking courses, that would be the sort of person you want.  But we want people who will take risks, and learn new things that are too hard to master on the first go.

(If it matters, this is self-serving, yes.  I made two C's:  one in an intermediate Art History class that was completely over my head, and one in Real Analysis.  Finally, I made a "B" in my Intro Econ class.  Nobody told me I was doing well.  Because I wasn't.)

An extended discussion of the problem can be found in Megan McArdle's terrific new book, THE UP SIDE OF DOWN.  It's really great, and it argues that students need to be encouraged to fail.

Or at least get a "B," fercrissakes.

(UPDATE:  Claudia S. points out, on twitter [ @Claudia_Sahm ], that my "lecture" was almost certainly completely ineffective, and even counterproductive.  And Claudia is right, of course.  If someone is unsure of themselves then being yelled at in public by a creepy old guy like me is not really helpful. Another reader pointed out that this scene from Big Lebowski is apropos...   Further, if the young woman had taken a course in math and gotten a "B," then she would no longer have thought she was "really good" at math.  My point is that you should not just take courses in things in which you are already "really good", and courses in high school don't count!  You need to try to get better at OTHER things.  Staying inside your comfort zone is the whole problem!  Figure out what you are "really bad" at, and then go take THOSE courses, to get better.  So, either the young lady was "really good," and would make a good grade, or she would find out it was hard, and she wasn't really good, and so she needed to work hard to make a decent, maybe not even good, grade.  That's why I look for a "C" in the transcript, as long as the course is a difficult one.  Take something you are not "really good" at.)

Chivalry

Chivalry?  Common sense?  Sexism?  You decide.

I generally do #1, #3, and #8, and try to do #5 and #6 regularly.  

The third one (open the door) just makes sense; the LMM often actually waits for a beat at the door, on the assumption that I will open it.  We're a team, here, and I need something to make me feel like I'm on the team!  And some doors are very heavy.  MM=2.4*LMM. 

The second (pull out her chair) is probably a good idea; I should try it.

The reason many men do NOT do these things may be this.

Ladies:  do you want men to want to do more of these things?  Or is it insulting?

News: Men are "Kind of Pathetic"

If women are around, men act differently.

I'm not sure it's really "pathetic."  It just means that evolution rewards offspring.  So taking risks of being injured, but buying attention and increased mating opportunities, even just in expected value, is an increase in fitness.  There's no fitness payoff to dignity, or living to 80.  Fitness is just more chances at the bouncy-bouncy.

Interesting, though, that men are so....well, responsive.

Grace Hopper Explains All

Grace Hopper explains the nanosecond.  She was a rear admiral, a tough old broad.

A Separate Cycling Lane?

Money, Status, and the Ovulatory Cycle 
Kristina Durante et al.
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming

Abstract: Each month, millions of women experience an ovulatory cycle that regulates fertility. Past consumer research has found that the cycle influences women's clothing and food preferences. But we propose that the ovulatory cycle has a much broader effect on women's economic behavior. Drawing on theory in evolutionary psychology, we hypothesize that the week-long period near ovulation should boost women's desire for relative status, which should alter women's economic decisions. Findings from three studies show that near ovulation women sought positional goods to improve their social standing. Additional findings revealed that ovulation led women to seek positional goods when doing so improved relative standing compared to other women, but not compared to other men. When playing the dictator game, for example, ovulating women gave smaller offers to a woman, but not to a man. Overall, women's monthly hormonal fluctuations appear to have a substantial effect on consumer behavior by systematically altering women's positional concerns, which has important implications for marketers, consumers, and researchers.


Menstrual Cycle Effects on Attitudes toward Romantic Kissing 
Rafael Wlodarski & Robin Dunbar
Human Nature, December 2013, Pages 402-413

Abstract: Hormonal changes associated with the human menstrual cycle have been previously found to affect female mate preference, whereby women in the late follicular phase of their cycle (i.e., at higher risk of conception) prefer males displaying putative signals of underlying genetic fitness. Past research also suggests that romantic kissing is utilized in human mating contexts to assess potential mating partners. The current study examined whether women in their late follicular cycle phase place greater value on kissing at times when it might help serve mate assessment functions. Using an international online questionnaire, results showed that women in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle felt that kissing was more important at initial stages of a relationship than women in the luteal phase of their cycle. Furthermore, it was found that estimated progesterone levels were a significant negative predictor for these ratings.

Nod to the estimable Kevin Lewis

That Woman Who Walked by Must Have Been Quite Attractive

The LMM takes two photos in quick succession on a warm day on the Battery, southern tip of Manhattan.  Busted...

Don't Try to "Fix" It, Okay? I just need you to LISTEN, sometimes.

It's Not About the Nail from Jason Headley on Vimeo.

Fight the Power!

I have a great colleague (just got tenure), Dr. Bahar Leventoğlu.

 It turns out she has been fighting a landmark court case in Turkey, for the legal right to keep and use her own name (her "maiden" name in patriarchal language) after getting married.

And she won! GoodONya, ma'am!

 (Some background and other details on the case here)

Labor Force

See what I did with that title.  To have babies, women go into "labor."  You're welcome.


Opting Out among Women with Elite Education 

Joni Hersch 
Vanderbilt University Working Paper, March 2013 

 Abstract: Whether highly educated women are exiting the labor force to care for their children has generated a great deal of media attention, even though academic studies find little evidence of opting out. This paper shows that female graduates of elite institutions have lower labor market involvement than their counterparts from less selective institutions. Although elite graduates are more likely to earn advanced degrees, marry at later ages, and have higher expected earnings, there is little difference in labor market activity by college selectivity among women without children and women who are not married. But the presence of children is associated with far lower labor market activity among married elite graduates. Most women eventually marry and have children, and the net effect is that labor market activity is on average lower among elite graduates than among those from less selective institutions. The largest gap in labor market activity between graduates of elite institutions and less selective institutions is among MBAs, with married mothers who are graduates of elite institutions 30 percentage points less likely to be employed full-time than graduates of less selective institutions.

Why Do So Few Women Work in New York (and So Many in Minneapolis)? Labor Supply of Married Women across U.S. Cities 

 Dan Black, Natalia Kolesnikova & Lowell Taylor 
Journal of Urban Economics, forthcoming 

Abstract: This paper documents a little-noticed feature of U.S. labor markets — very large variation in the labor supply of married women across cities. We focus on cross-city differences in commuting times as a potential explanation for this variation. We start with a model in which commuting times introduce non-convexities into the budget set. Empirical evidence is consistent with the model’s predictions: Labor force participation rates of married women are negatively correlated with the metropolitan area commuting time. Also, metropolitan areas with larger increases in average commuting time in 1980-2000 had slower growth in the labor force participation of married women. 

Nod to Kevin Lewis

Like a Scene from Chicago

In the play/movie "Chicago," there are the female murder-felons competing for attention.

Here is a version of that, only even more tasteless.   Jodi, Casey, Amanda:  Who'd You Rather?

You won't find stuff like this on BrendanNyhan.com, folks!

Thanks to Angry Alex, who always asks the important questions.

Hook Up

A Cross-Cultural Content-Analytic Comparison of the Hookup Culture in U.S. and Dutch Teen Girl Magazines 

Suchi Pradyumn Joshi, Jochen Peter & Patti Valkenburg
Journal of Sex Research, forthcoming

Abstract: This quantitative content analysis investigated the hookup culture in U.S. and Dutch teen girl magazines. Using Hofstede's cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, the hookup culture (i.e., the relational context of sex, emotional context of sex, specific sexual activities, and contraceptives) was examined in 2,496 stories from all 2006 through 2008 issues of the three most popular U.S. (i.e., Seventeen, CosmoGirl! U.S. edition, and Teen) and Dutch teen girl magazines (i.e., Fancy, CosmoGirl! Netherlands edition, and Girlz!). Regarding the relational context of sex, stories about casual sex occurred more often in U.S. magazines, and Dutch magazines focused more on committed sex. Dutch magazines also emphasized sex within the emotional context of love more often than did U.S. magazines. In terms of sexual activities, coital sex was mentioned more often in U.S. coverage, while petting was mentioned more frequently in Dutch coverage. Condoms were covered more positively in U.S. magazines than in Dutch magazines. Overall, the hookup culture seems to be more visible in U.S. magazines for the occurrence of casual sex and lack of love stories, whereas it does not emerge in Dutch magazines due to the presence of committed sex and love-related articles.

Nod to Kevin Lewis

The Fokken Twins Retire

In Amsterdam, the 70 year old Fokken twins, Louise and Martine, decide to hang up the garter after 50 years each as prostitutes.  Yes, those Fokken twins.  "People like twins."

A very cute interview with them also.  They enjoyed all the new people they got to meet, 350,000 people in fact.  "Hallooo!  It's far away!"  Sounds like Gumby Theater.

Nod to M.K.

Markets in the Oldest Thing

The rich shale oil formation deep below the rolling pastures here has attracted droves of young men to work the labor-intensive jobs that get the wells flowing and often generate six-figure salaries. What the oil boom has not brought, however, are enough single women...This has complicated life for women in the region as well. Many said they felt unsafe. Several said they could not even shop at the local Walmart without men following them through the store. Girls’ night out usually becomes an exercise in fending off obnoxious, overzealous suitors who often flaunt their newfound wealth...Prosecutors and the police note an increase in crimes against women, including domestic and sexual assaults...Some women have banked on the female shortage. Williston’s two strip clubs attract dancers from around the country. [NYTimes]

ATSRTWT

Nod to Kevin Lewis