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A comment on Happy Guys Finish Last, Says New Study on Sexual Attractiveness. Parent comment

Re:Happy Guys Finish Last, Says New Study on Sexual Attracti... by oasisbob on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @09:06PM (#2582452)
"It is important to remember that this study explored first-impressions of sexual attraction to images of the opposite sex," says Alec Beall, a UBC psychology graduate student and study co-author. "We were not asking participants if they thought these targets would make a good boyfriend or wife -- we wanted their gut reactions on carnal, sexual attraction."
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Re:Happy Guys Finish Last, Says New Study on Sexual Attracti... by extension on Wednesday May 25, 2011 @12:37AM (#2582875)
That is just grazing the surface of what is wrong with an experiment like this. For example:

- people may react differently to photos than they do to real people

- people may react differently in a lab than they do in a real life courting situation

- people may lie about their attractions for unfathomable reasons

- people may not even know what they are attracted to

- the people in the photos can't necessarily fake emotions convincingly

These kinds of issues confound most psychological experiments but you really can't dismiss them when it comes to sex.

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