Anticipation of an interaction with a woman dulls men's brains. The opposite is not true.
Researchers at the Behavioural Science Institute in the Netherlands investigating men’s cognitive performance found it decreased significantly in situations where men believed they were dealing with women.
Two studies demonstrated that men’s (but not women’s) cognitive performance declined if they were led to believe that they were interacting with a member of the opposite sex via a computer or even if men merely anticipated a later interaction with a woman.
These results suggest that an actual interaction is not a necessary prerequisite for the cognitive impairment effect to occur. Moreover, these effects occur even if men do not get information about the woman’s attractiveness.
The researchers concluded that even the most subtle form of exposure to a potential mate can diminish men’s cognitive performance, even if she is nothing more than a name on a computer screen.
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