What Makes Men Go To War? Sex, New Study Says
A new study suggests there's a link between a man's motivation to mate and go to war.
What motivates a man to go to war? Why, sex, of course.
According to a recent study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers are calling out the link between a man's motivation to mate and his interest in or support for war. 7 Reasons To Date A Military Man
In the past, the psychological roots of warfare have been theorized as a man's "heroic struggle" to give his life meaning and/or the means to attract a woman and produce offspring. The evoluationary psychology camp, alternatively, believe it's sexual desire (especially a desire that's been denied, via feelings of shame or guilt, for example) that sparks a man's desire to go to war. In other words, our urge to love or kill comes from the same place deep within our brain. Sexual Satisfaction And The Myth Of The Female Orgasm
The recent findings includes the results of four different experiments. The first experiment had 111 male and female students at a college in China look at full-body photographs of attractive and unattractive members of the opposite sex. The students then answered 39 questions about war and trade conflicts, and men who saw pictures of attractive woman answered war-related questions with a more militant attitude than when answering trade-related questions. Likewise, men who had viewed unattractive females and female respondents themselves displayed more peaceful attitudes to war-related questions.
Another experiment had young heterosexual males look at two sets of photos—Chinese national flags and women's legs. Afterwards, participants took a computer test to see how quickly they could respond to common Chinese words having to do with either wars or farms. Surprisingly, the men who saw pictures of a woman's legs responded faster than the men who saw pictures of national flags.
I mean, we always knew our legs could powerfully effect a man, but we hardly knew it could inspire him to go to war...
Tell us: do you believe a man's motivation for sex really inspires him to go to war?