- CHICAGO -- A recent University
of Chicago research study confirms what many have suspected for a long
time: women make men drool.
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- NBC5's Nesita Kwan reported that a Chicago researcher
is proving that there is something in a man's saliva that shows he's coming
on to a woman.
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- Scientists tested the saliva of 39 heterosexual men who
agreed to participate in a what they thought was a test of the chemistry
of their spit. The test was set-up in such a way that the men were asked
to wait for a period of time between giving samples. Each waited in the
company of a research assistant; in some cases a male and in other cases
a 20-something woman.
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- The assistants were instructed to make small talk with
the waiting subjects for about five minutes. Elizabeth Hirsch
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- "I tried to hold this general conversation with
them," said assistant Elizabeth Hirsch, adding that her approach was
"nothing overtly flirtatious."
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- After a short time, the subjects' saliva was tested for
a second time.
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- Those who chatted with the female research assistants
showed a 30 percent increase in testosterone levels in their saliva. Testosterone
is a hormone that influences male sexual behavior.
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- Testosterone levels were highest in a few of the men
who were, apparently, flirting with the assistants.
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- "I could tell by the eye contact," Hirsch said.
"If they were asking me a lot of questions about myself rather than
me asking questions ... they were interested in me."
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- The experiment, published in the journal Evolution and
Human Behavior, is part of a larger study of male sexuality.
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- "The ultimate goal is to pinpoint what part of the
brain might regulate courtship," according to James Roney, a U. of
C. postdoctoral student who supervised the study as part of the the university's
Institute for Mind and Biology.
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- http://www.nbc5.com/health/2620730/detail.html
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