The biology linking sex and money
17/04/2008 4:15:00 PM
By PAUL WELLS
How testosterone affects financial results
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More Links:<LI class=color type=square>Loblaw’s déjã vu<LI class=color type=square>Unravelling the mystery of the McRib<LI class=color type=square>Calling 911 on a big, racy retailer<LI class=color type=square>Subscribe to Maclean’s and get a bonus gift!The financial business has long been noted for its testosterone-soaked atmosphere. Think of the trading floors where workplace banter resembles that of a locker room, or the culture among investment bankers who like to celebrate deals with steaks, scotch, cigars and nubile members of the fairer sex. Critics and participants alike have long put this down to the inevitable dynamics of highly competitive, male-dominated industries, where being a guy’s guy is both expected and richly rewarded. But new research out of Stanford University suggests there may be psychological and biological reasons for the macho culture.
The researchers studied 15 heterosexual men at Stanford and examined their betting behaviour in a random chance game. The study found that men take more risks with their money after seeing an erotic photo of an attractive woman than they do after seeing a neutral image (like a stapler) or an image associated with fear and pain (like a photo of a snake). Using MRI scans, they also discovered the same parts of the brain are activated by sexual imagery and by financial risk-taking.
The results, which appear in the current issue of the journal NeuroReport, shed light on the way that one of the brain’s pleasure centres forms an appetite for risk. The nucleus accumbens is a V-shaped cluster of neurons at the base of the brain, known to play a central role in our experience of pleasure from food, music, and humour. Now, it appears, sexual arousal and financial risk light up that part of the brain in very similar ways, and one may actually drive the other. (One presumes this might also explain why casinos favour sequined minidresses and plunging necklines for their cocktail waitresses.)
Camelia Kuhnen, one of the researchers on the study and a finance professor at Northwestern University, thinks there are evolutionary reasons for this money/sex connection. Put simply, the boldest man gets the riches and the woman, and that equation may be hard-wired into male biology.
