JtB
Prepare a way for the Lord
- Location
- North Hampshire
Faster cyclists are more attractive
- Thread starter JtB
- Start date
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asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
Steve H
Large Member
- Location
- Brighouse in West Yorkshire
Are you saying I'm ugly?
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
There's a Benny Hill 'joke' in here somewhere.
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
But fatter cyclists are more attractive than faster cyclists. 
- Location
- Glasgow
Really, OP? 
Bobby Mhor
Legendary Member
- Location
- Behind You
But fatter cyclists are more attractive than faster cyclists.
I agree most heartily
if size matters I'm a hunk
OP
OP
JtB
Prepare a way for the Lord
- Location
- North Hampshire
I'm sure I've seen posts somewhere in the past that would suggest you are a pretty rapid cyclist.Really, OP?
Bromptonaut
Rohan Man
- Location
- Bugbrooke UK
But fatter cyclists are more attractive than faster cyclists.
That's how I read it too
Flying_Monkey
Recyclist
- Location
- Odawa
The methodology seems sound enough and the results are what they are, however the explanation offered is, like a lot of these evolutionary neuropsychology / biology pieces of research, entirely speculative and just as likely to be something else - basically boils down to 'evolution, innit? Hunter-gatherers, chasing mammoths across the plains, women collecting berries and men with spears...' It's like the academic equivalant of Ron Manager.
I've tried to engage with some of these researchers in the past to actually get them to try to test their explanations against others (you know, like the fact that our ideas of beauty and desirability are both bound up in particular cultural and social expectations, and strongly determined by popular media, so are far from being unchanged since the ice ages), But unfortunately these kinds of pre-conceived explanations for all atttitudes and behaviour appeal to the simplistic way in which mass media like to present science stories, and these days universities like to see their academics in the media ('knowledge transfer' or 'dissemination' is a key performance indicator) even if it's bollocks...
I've tried to engage with some of these researchers in the past to actually get them to try to test their explanations against others (you know, like the fact that our ideas of beauty and desirability are both bound up in particular cultural and social expectations, and strongly determined by popular media, so are far from being unchanged since the ice ages), But unfortunately these kinds of pre-conceived explanations for all atttitudes and behaviour appeal to the simplistic way in which mass media like to present science stories, and these days universities like to see their academics in the media ('knowledge transfer' or 'dissemination' is a key performance indicator) even if it's bollocks...
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shouldbeinbed
Rollin' along
- Location
- Manchester way
My commute is largely downhill to work and vice verca.
I must get to work looking like George Clooney and return home looking like Quasimodo's backside.
I must get to work looking like George Clooney and return home looking like Quasimodo's backside.
Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
I sometimes have bike rides where I'm so devilishly attractive, I make Clooney and Connery look hideous .
But then I wake up! . I do enjoy the bike ride dreams while they last, though.
.But then I wake up!
. I do enjoy the bike ride dreams while they last, though.
swee'pea99
Squire
Hmmm. It's the kind of story that might, say, make the BBC News website...so you can see why academics might be interested in concocting it, but I have to say, I'd be interested in seeing the actual photos they used.
As Monkey says, the basic story is a familiar one - "Healthy, physically fit men would on average be seen as more attractive by women." - but it's hard to believe there would be any real variation on that score between "80 professional cyclists from the 2012 Tour de France". Seems fair to assume that anyone who earns his crust as a TdF pro is about as uber as it gets. So what *did* make the difference? My guess would be something in the eyes that, in very subtle ways, reveals the subject's take on themselves: that the winners radiate positivity, while the losers' eyes look somehow down at the mouth. And it's that that the respondents are responding too. (I did think it was an interesting aside that "Dr Postma and his team found that women who were on the contraceptive pill were less likely to link attractiveness to performance.... women on the pill had a reduced preference for faster cyclists.")
The whole cultural aspect is fascinating. It's only relatively recently that we've begun to see a tan as attractive - and we do, I do certainly. There's clear evidence that as recently as Victorian times, men were more likely to be turned on by milky white skin, it being evidence that one was a lady and one didn't have to go around grubbing around in the dirt for mangle wurzels. Even today, in much of the third world, men show a preference for what we in the west would consider fat women. We've come to prefer skinny; in some societies, fat remains a major 'success' indicator, and is therefore attractive.
Overall though, quite an interesting bit of pop science...though I certainly wouldn't read too much into it. I might if I was a bit faster.
As Monkey says, the basic story is a familiar one - "Healthy, physically fit men would on average be seen as more attractive by women." - but it's hard to believe there would be any real variation on that score between "80 professional cyclists from the 2012 Tour de France". Seems fair to assume that anyone who earns his crust as a TdF pro is about as uber as it gets. So what *did* make the difference? My guess would be something in the eyes that, in very subtle ways, reveals the subject's take on themselves: that the winners radiate positivity, while the losers' eyes look somehow down at the mouth. And it's that that the respondents are responding too. (I did think it was an interesting aside that "Dr Postma and his team found that women who were on the contraceptive pill were less likely to link attractiveness to performance.... women on the pill had a reduced preference for faster cyclists.")
The whole cultural aspect is fascinating. It's only relatively recently that we've begun to see a tan as attractive - and we do, I do certainly. There's clear evidence that as recently as Victorian times, men were more likely to be turned on by milky white skin, it being evidence that one was a lady and one didn't have to go around grubbing around in the dirt for mangle wurzels. Even today, in much of the third world, men show a preference for what we in the west would consider fat women. We've come to prefer skinny; in some societies, fat remains a major 'success' indicator, and is therefore attractive.
Overall though, quite an interesting bit of pop science...though I certainly wouldn't read too much into it. I might if I was a bit faster.
