Wednesday, April 6

Dieters are cranky gits–and that turns women off

I am trying to reduce my weight as the whole world knows. Also to look good (although I think that ship has sailed, i have a face that my mum doesn't like either)  But I thought I am not cranky, but this article shows otherwise. I quote

A bad mood is no different. When we push our mind too hard, asking it to refrain from carbs and cigarettes, we struggle to avoid the negative thoughts and emotions that lead to sour moods. Consider this 2007 study: The scientists told subjects to refrain from eating a tempting chocolate donut for a few minutes. Then, they insulted these poor (and probably hungry) experimental volunteers. Not surprisingly, those who had successfully resisted the donut were more likely to get aggressive in response to the insult. Or look at the medical literature, in which people on diets are typically “irritable and aggressive.” (This is the so-called cranky dieter effect.) Although we’d like to be happy and polite, those positive moods take cognitive work, and our brain is too tired to care. We lose our temper because we lack the willpower to swallow our angry words.

heh, so i now have a good excuse to be a grumpy old sod. Victor Bhaskar Meldrew in person. Crotchety old git.

But here is the problem, grumpy old gits are not attractive to women for some strange reason. I quote:

Producing humor might function as a fitness indicator associated with greater desirability during dating selection. A male confederate in a bar was instructed to tell (or not tell) funny jokes to two other male confederates. A few minutes later, when the second of two male confederates left, the first male confederate asked a female who was near his table and who had heard the funny jokes for her phone number. The previous expression of humor was associated with greater compliance with the male confederate's request and with a higher positive evaluation. The possible effects of humor are discussed from an evolutionary perspective.

Eh? I thought dieting would make me more attractive to other human beings. So all I have to do is to crack jokes? Damn this diet, sod it, i am going to go bake brownies now.

btw, another research from the same site, it tickled my sapiosexual bone (no pun intended, oh! who am I kidding, the bone was a pun!):

To explain the pervasive role of humor in human social interaction and among mating partner preferences, Miller (2000a) proposed that intentional humor evolved as an indicator of intelligence. To test this, we looked at the relationships among rater-judged humor, general intelligence, and the Big Five personality traits in a sample of 185 college- age students (115 women, 70 men). General intelligence positively predicted rater-judged humor, independent of the Big Five personality traits. Extraversion also predicted rater- judged humor, although to a lesser extent than general intelligence. General intelligence did not interact with the sex of the participant in predicting rating scores on the humor production tasks. The current study lends support to the prediction that effective humor production acts as an honest indicator of intelligence in humans. In addition, extraversion, and to a lesser extent, openness, may reflect motivational traits that encourage humor production.

1 comment:

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Try the Atkins Diet. All the meat and fat you want (well, within limits) and no need to starve yourself.
And it works. (Though you should try and eat a lot of greens)

J.A.P.