Now there are even more reasons to hate George Clooney. Picture: Frazer …

Now there are even more reasons to hate George Clooney. Picture: Frazer Harrison
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UNTIL now we were only aware of the charms beautiful girls had on men.

Now, a new study shows that an attractive man can also affect a man’s financial risk-taking behaviour.

The study, led by Dr Eugene Chan, from the University of Technology in Sydney, tested how the risk-taking behaviour of male and female participants was affected by the mere glimpse of same-sex models.

“In my experiments, I showed pictures of shirtless male models to my male participants, and pictures of female models in lingerie to my female participants,” he said.

Participants were then asked to complete a series of financial risk-taking tasks, for example choosing between a 50% chance of receiving $100 or simply receiving $50.

Further experiments employing similar risk-taking tasks were performed, testing the influence of other factors such as a person’s assessment of its own beauty or its financial status.

The results showed clear cut differences between male and female participants.

Yet, this had no affect on women.
Source: Supplied

Men were affected by this.
Source: News Limited

While females were mostly not disturbed by the attractive female model and went for the less risky options, males got all worked out after seeing a hot male model and choose the risky option.

“Men might not want to admit it, and they might want to appear all macho, but the presence of other guys, especially good looking ones, can have an effect on what they do with their money.”

Chan first came up with this idea when browsing through some heavily sexualised advertising on a shopping mall.

“That got me thinking about not whether such advertising works, but how such advertising might impact other outcomes of interest,” he said.

After reviewing previous research Chan noticed little was known on whether same sex beauty also affected our behaviour.

“Now, in my usual stream of research, I focus on financial decision-making and risk-taking, so I put the 2-and-2 together to see how sexualised same-sex images influence financial risk-taking,” he said.

Chris Hemsworth is responsible for my gambling habits.
Source: Supplied

Making up for our shortcomings?

According to Chan, the logic behind these odd results boils down to improving our chances of mating by making up for our shortcomings.

“When the average heterosexual man sees a good-looking guy, he likely has the perception that he’s less physically attractive,” he said.

So what happens then?

Well, we try to make up for it.

Chan thinks that our evolutionary background drives us to make up for our less attractive look in other ways, in order to increase our appeal to woman.

“Having financial resources is another major way for men, evolutionary speaking, to increase his appeal, and taking financial risks offers the quickest, if not the best, way to earn more money,” he said.

Don’t have good looks? Hit the slots.
Source: AFP

The findings have several potential implications.

For example, it may help financial advisers realise that there is a lot going on a man’s head when it comes to decide how to invest.

“My findings suggest that men’s evolutionary motives to find a partner will impact how willing they would bear financial risk. This in turn influences the type of investments they would invest in,” he said.

Whether good or bad, these findings may be both, explains chan.

“Obviously in a casino, it might be a bad thing for individuals, but it might be a good thing for casinos. But taking financial risks even in the stock market, say, also isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” he said.

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