Clichéd men and political eyes

Obvious men Here on the science Lite desk, we love pointless research but sometimes the results are just so obvious we wonder why the study was ever conducted in the first place.

Take for example this study – recently published in Personality and Individual Differences – which found men are more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women, rather than other men.

The research – from a psychologist at the University of Texas – found that men were twice as likely to continue dating a girlfriend if they had had a homosexual affair, whereas women were more likely to stick with their partner if they’d had a heterosexual affair.

Now, at this point we joked that if a follow up study was conducted examining the willingness of the women who had engaged in a homosexual affair to include the man in their indiscretions then the male’s propensity to forgive their partner really would skyrocket.

Yet the study’s lead author – Jaime C. Confer – actually suggests this as a reason for the difference. Guys, he thinks, are worried that their girl will get something better from another guy, and threaten the continuation of their genetic linage. But at the same time, a guy whose girl has cheated with another female is likely to see it as an opportunity to mate with more than one woman at a time and satisfy their desire for more partners, say the researchers.

Typical - a woman cheats, yet the man’s mind immediately arrives at the conclusion that perhaps he could be getting in on the action. How disappointing that there is actual quantifiable evidence that men so overtly think with their reproductive organs. Yet, is it simplistic to write men off as behaving like they are appearing in the latest Hollywood frat movie? Perhaps this is just a case of looking on the bright side? After discovering their girl has cheated with another woman, men realise that there is no point crying over spilt milk and they may as well have a stab at furthering their genetic lineage.

Men - scientifically proven to be predictable, clichéd and yet also eternal optimists.

Liberal gaze As Cameron and Clegg clumsily navigate their way through yet another lovers tiff, this time over the national system of voting - research from the US suggests they may never see eye to eye, literally.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" – a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task – and found big differences between the two groups.

Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Those stubborn conservatives, on the other hand, did not. Perhaps Cameron should take advantage of this, gently guiding Clegg’s gaze by constantly looking at a board saying “Agree with me at all costs my pesky little deputy.”

But surely your political outlook doesn’t stem from your biology? We have always been of the opinion that upbringing is the main factor in your political make-up. One Science Lite staffer, for example, was raised exclusively on the Daily Mail, and now in a classic ‘rebel against my parents’ move has developed into the wishiest of washiest liberals.

Yet, In addition to shedding light on the differences between the two political camps, the researchers claim results add to growing indications that suggest biology does indeed play an important role determining one's political direction. In fact, previous UNL research has delved into the physiology of political orientation, showing that those highly responsive to threatening images are likely to support defence spending, capital punishment, patriotism and the Iraq War.

What, exactly, the world is to make of this we are not sure. Perhaps those in the Liberal party that have been disappointed by Clegg’s adhesion to Conservative policy may like to check the Liberal credentials of their next party leader by seriously examining their gaze.