Study Finds Women Can't Stand Being Around A Sexier Women
Would you feel more comfortable around a woman who is heavier than you and has average looks or a woman who is thinner and sexier than you? Would you respond differently to these woman on first meeting them or would you treat them the same?
Well, chances are unless you are a saint, you might behave less than accepting, not to the heavy woman, but to the attractive, well packaged one. According to a recent study by psychologists at two Canadian universities published in Aggressive Behavior, women can be b----es if a member of their sex does not abide by the women's group norms in dress and appearance.
Tracy Vaillancourt, professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa invited 86 women between the ages of 17 and 28 to take part in a study which was supposed to be on conflict resolution. What lead author Vaillancourt didn't tell participants was that they were being closely examined about their reactions toward a young woman who would enter the room in two dress styles. One would be casual and unobtrusive, a T-shirt and khakis with her hair matching the casual look. The other would be in a low-cut top and mini skirt with her hair down for a sexier, eye-catching appearance.
When the student entered with her casual, unassuming attire, she was barely noticed. However, in the low-cut top and mini-skirt, the roof blew off from the snide remarks, blaring looks, raised eyebrows and mocking snorts, especially when she left the room.
Women know what it is like to be oogled by men who undress them with their eyes. Shouldn't they be empathetic to such a woman and not be abusive toward her? But to have women respond in the way they did was less than surprising to researchers. "This is not something that sort of happened," said Vaillancourt, referring to the regularity of "bitchy" responses. "Ninety-seven percent of the women were inappropriate."
Researchers continued with another examination, this time in an attempt to probe deeper to understand the underpinnings of the bitchy responses. Whipping out two different photographs of the same woman, one dressed casually the other alluringly, they asked each participant whether or not she would think it was OK to let her boyfriend spend time with the woman on a project. A third altered photograph of the woman was also shown to the participants. In this photograph, the woman was made to look heavier and dowdier.
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