Proof That Men and Women Can't Stop Ogling

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Nov 08, 2013

1

This may not be news to most women, but a new study suggests men spend way more time checking out a woman’s body than gazing into her eyes. What may be surprising to some though is that women tend to do the same thing when viewing another woman.

USA Today reports about the University of Nebraska – Lincoln study that is the first of its kind to use eye-tracking technology to prove men (and women) place a lot of emphasis on a woman’s body when seeing her for the first time. Both men and women involved in the study spent a greater amount of time ogling a woman’s chest and waist than they did glancing at her face.

The curvier a woman the more time was spent looking at her body. Lead author and social psychologist Sarah Gervais explains the findings saying, “Until now, we didn't have evidence people were actually doing that to women's bodies. We have women's self-reports, but this is some of the first work to document that people actually engage in this.”

Gervais also points out how we tend to mimic what we see in our everyday culture on TV and in magazines. She explains, “We live in a culture in which we constantly see women objectified in interactions on television and in the media. When you turn your own lens on everyday, ordinary women, we focus on those parts, too.”

But aside from being influenced by culture and media, we may also be checking out women based on their bodies due to evolutionary reasoning. Gervais explains that men may naturally look at curvier women longer because they are interested in a good child bearer and women may simply be checking out their competition.

What do you think of the study that suggests both men and women tend to look at a woman’s body for longer than they look at her face?

Do you find yourself focusing your attention on a woman’s body or face when meeting for the first time?