Study Says Men Get Dumber Just By Thinking About Women
Science has discovered that the mere mention of a woman's name can make a man dumber.
Master1305 / Shutterstock It's no secret that the male gender is a bunch of bumbling idiots when it comes to us ladies. Look at us!
Our hips, our breasts, the way we smell, the softness of skin (which is completely natural and in no way attributed to mounds of moisturizer), and of course, just the fact that we are the fairer (read: superior) of the genders — we're the complete package.
But it's not something to lose your mind about. Women see attractive men all the time and we don't lose our minds and become dumbstruck puppies.
Science has discovered that not only do men get, well, dumb in our presence but that the mere mention of a woman's name can have this effect. Women would never do this.
Psychologist Johan Karremans and author of the 2012 study, Sanne Nauts, distributed the Stroop test (just a basic cognitive test) to 71 men and women and asked them to respond via instant message from a "monitor" that would pop up either a guy or girl's name.
While women's cognitive skills weren't affected either way (superior, see?), the guys, although completely unaffected by a fellow fella's name, failed in their cognitive skills miserably after they heard a woman's name. In other words, their brains just couldn't function at full capacity just because they read "Amanda" or "Natalie" on a screen.
That's it? Just a name does it, not even a face or actually seeing them in person? How do men read anything if all it takes is a woman's name to get them acting dumb? It's hard out there for a guy. I can't imagine being distracted each time.
During the second experiment, all the participants were told that a man or woman would be IMing them. Even though no IMs were sent, the guys still got all flustered, and again failed. Not even a real woman contacted them, and they still get all riled up or nothing.
What did they think was gonna happen if a woman was going to IM them? Really? Do we really have that obscene amount of an effect on you guys? Take a Xanax already. Do some restorative yoga. I've done it and it's worked wonders for me. I suggest all my exes do it as well.
The reason for this is unclear, but Nauts' explanation is that men just may be more likely "to perceive relatively neutral situations in sexualized terms" than women. Ha. Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Amanda Chatel is a lifestyle writer with a focus on sex, relationships, sexual health women's reproductive rights, feminism, and mental health. Her work has appeared on Glamour, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Shape, Mic, Harper's Bazaar, The Atlantic, Forbes, Elle, Huffington Post, Men's Health, BlackBook and many other sites.