There's nothing like the sight of a rival to embolden a man, it seems. If you want a straight man to make a riskier play in poker, you should consider getting a hot guy to sit with you.
In what seems to be a kind of compensating behaviour, when heterosexual men see another man they perceive as being more attractive than themselves, they try to increase their wealth. They make high-risk, high-return decisions, says Eugene Chan from the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.
He did four behavioural experiments involving 820 men and women. After being shown pictures of attractive men, the heterosexual men in the study were more likely to choose a riskier bet when given the choice than at other times, or than when shown a picture of an attractive woman.
Model behaviour
In one experiment, some men were shown male models in Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements, while others were shown female Victoria's Secret models. A third group were shown photographs of "average" looking people.
The participants were then offered the choice of getting $100, or taking a bet where they had a 90% chance of getting nothing and a 10% chance of getting $1000. The men who saw male models were more likely to choose the risky bet than the men who were shown female models or mere mortals. And no difference was seen in the behaviour of the women.
The effect was greater in participants who rated the models as "more attractive" than themselves, suggesting the risk-taking was an attempt to compensate for perceived inferiority.
And there was a bigger effect when the men were in a "mating mindset", imagining wooing a woman.
Money matters
"This financial risk-taking occurs because men want to appear more desirable to women, and having more money is one way to do so," says Chan. "Taking financial risks is one quick way to get more money, even if it might not be a sure thing."
Bill von Hippel of the University of Queensland in Australia says the results highlight an aspect of male mating behaviour that people tend to forget. Before attracting females, the men need to compete with other males for access to them, he says.
So does taking these kinds of financial risk work? "I guess the idea that money can be helpful for men who are less attractive is evident in many TV shows and movies, " says Chan. "But yes, one can also say that taking greater financial risks can be a stupid way to go, since it might not necessarily make more money. In fact, you might lose money."
Chan says he can imagine banks or casinos using this information to encourage riskier behaviour. "But I can also see policy and government officials counteracting this with stricter regulations regarding advertising."
Journal reference: Evolution and Human Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.03.005
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