At the Independent in the UK this week editors teamed science editor Steve Connor and Jeremy Lawrence for a catch-all on science research they call University of the Bleedin’ Obvious. Gee, that headline alone is enough to make this thing worth tracking. It starts with a study that suggests, surprise surprise, that many men, upon seeing women in scanty clothing, drop their curiosity over their senses of humor or wants or needs or potentically scintillating conversation and think: sex object. There is more to it than that of course – it’s worth knowing what parts of a fairly normal male brain get stupid under the influence of the slightest suggestion that sex may be at hand. Beyond that, the newspaper’s handling of this opportunity to provide some light reading is to be saluted. And Connor does treat the lead item with some seriousness.
Only 21 male undergraduates got their brains scanned, incidentally, for the study that triggered this news wrap up. Could be some small number and non-representative, hence merely suggestive, stats in this.
-CP
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