More Stupid Psychology

Unfortunately, the science magazines (e.g., Scientific American, National Geographic), like the rest of the culture, have been bamboozled by psychology into taking psychological research seriously.

Take the most recent ridiculousness, an article in the National Geographic News titled, "Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm," which reported on a study by psychologists at prestigious Princeton University and presented at the equally prestigious annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the study the researchers performed brain scans of men while they saw pictures of scantily clad women. Apparently the region of the brain associated with tool use lit up confirming for the researchers the stereotype that we men view women as objects. And a really "shocking" finding was the activation of brain regions associated with inferring another person's intentions, suggesting to the lead researcher, Susan Fiske, that "This means that these men see women "as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds," Fiske said."

Is she kidding? Okay men, be honest, which of you looks at skimpily clad women and thinks, "I wonder what college she went to"?

Did these "researchers" look at other parts of the brain, such as the part of the hypothalamus that mediates sexual arousal, or perhaps measure sympathetic nervous system activation? Oh, and did I mention that, at least according to the article, the photographs of the scantily clad women were headless? Assuming any validity to the findings (a big assumption), aren't we more likely to view a headless person more as an object?

And the ridiculousness doesn't end there, because apparently some of Dr. Fiske's male colleagues at prestigious Princeton suggested performing a similar study with women because according to a reverse stereotype, women look for men who have wealth and power. Aha, so women see us men as objects too!

Of course, this analysis smacks of evolutionary psychology, which, if you need to be reminded, is just a rehash of sociobiology in a slightly more appealing package. But if they want to play the evolutionary psychology game, then, yeah, I look at sexy women as objects with whom I want to have sex. What healthy male doesn't? If we didn't, and were only interested in their minds, then perhaps we wouldn't have succeeded much as a species.

So, let women look for men to mate with who have power, and let us men look for sexually attractive females, and maybe we'll all be happy and successful.

By the way, this study is just one example of why psychology has contributed very little to either our understanding of human behavior or to our ability to change it.