Ogling may lower test scores, while eye contact may make people uncomfortable.
By Tom Miller — Written on Mar 01, 2011
Does getting checked out give you self-esteem? Does unnerving eye contact inspire you to standardized test greatness?
Per ABCNews, giving a woman an "objectifying" glance lessens her ability to perform on a test. The study, conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Penn State, had men and women split into two groups and interviewed (under the canard of an experiment about teamwork). The control group was given an interview in which strict eye contact was maintained. The experimental group experienced mostly eye contact, but was also subjected to a few instances of unabashed chest-staring (but lip-licking was expressly forbidden). The women in the experimental group performed worse on a mathematics test than the women who were not ogled (the dudes were about the same, irrespective of the eye-sexing they received). Advice: How To Maintain Eye Contact With Guys [VIDEO]
Sarah Gervais, an associate professor, said, "There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that checking women out has adverse effects, but there haven't really been any empirical studies to prove that."
The secondary finding of the study was pretty interesting, too. The women in the experimental group were far more interested in continuing a conversation with the interviewer than the women in the control group.
What can we take from this study? Is it that extended eye contact is the kind of creepy that makes a good chest glance seem like good fun? Is it that women who were not ogled need some other way to prove their worth, and it's by scoring high on a test? Is it possible that the number of test subjects (63 women) was just too small?
Whatever the case, men should probably take a peek or two when flirting with a woman, unless they're trying to convince her to take the SATs for them. I'm just glad that I may finally hear, "Excuse me, sir, my breasts are down here." Men Ogle Women 43 Minutes A Day
Does getting checked out make you nervous? Does bug-eyed, unwavering eye contact propel you to greatness? Do you think we should experiment on how guys test if they are in a room full of low-cut tops and g-string whale tails?