The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

    Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

    The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

    Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

    This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

    Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

    Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he 'temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.'

    To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

    Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

    The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

    The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

    But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

    In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

    Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

    'When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call 'reproductively focused'.

    'But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes, such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.'

    該項(xiàng)研究顯示，對(duì)男性大腦功能進(jìn)行測(cè)試時(shí)，在公司里與漂亮女性說話，即使只說了幾分鐘的男性，表現(xiàn)得不如和沒有吸引力的人說話的男性。

    執(zhí)行該項(xiàng)研究的研究人員解釋說原因或許是男性耗盡了過多的大腦能量或"認(rèn)知資源"來試圖給漂亮女性留下好印象，這樣他們分配給其他任務(wù)的大腦能量就相對(duì)少了。該項(xiàng)研究發(fā)行在"實(shí)驗(yàn)與社會(huì)心理學(xué)"雜志上。

    這項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)對(duì)公司里與女性調(diào)情的男性的表現(xiàn)抑或是男女混班的學(xué)校里的考試結(jié)果有所啟示。

    對(duì)女性而言，與一位英俊的男性交談卻并不受影響。

    這也許僅僅是因?yàn)槟行缘难莼�程序偏向更多的思考交配機(jī)會(huì)。

    這項(xiàng)研究是由荷蘭拉德伯德大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家發(fā)起的。事由其中一位心理學(xué)家急于給一位從未謀過面的漂亮女士留下好印象，以至于當(dāng)那位女士問他住在哪兒時(shí)，他都想不起來了。

    研究人員稱這就好像他強(qiáng)烈想要留下好印象，暫時(shí)將自己大多數(shù)的認(rèn)知資源都集中起來了。

    為了看其他男性是否會(huì)同樣被影響，研究人員招募了40名男性異性戀學(xué)生。

    每一個(gè)人進(jìn)行一項(xiàng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)記憶測(cè)試，即讓他們觀察一行字母，并讓他們盡快的說出來，檢查是否每個(gè)都一樣。

    然后在重復(fù)測(cè)試開始前，志愿者有7分鐘時(shí)間與研究組的男性或女成員交談。

    結(jié)果顯示，在試圖給女性留下印象后，男性表現(xiàn)得更慢且精確度也降低。女性越漂亮，男性表現(xiàn)得就越差。

    但是，當(dāng)對(duì)女性志愿者進(jìn)行重復(fù)測(cè)試時(shí)，結(jié)果與男性卻不一樣。無論與男性或女性交談，她們的記憶分?jǐn)?shù)與之前的測(cè)試都一樣。

    在一份研究發(fā)現(xiàn)報(bào)告中，研究人員稱"我們推斷男性的認(rèn)知功能在和一位迷人的女性交談后，可能會(huì)暫時(shí)降低。"

    英國(guó)心理學(xué)協(xié)會(huì)的心理學(xué)家喬治。菲爾斯德博士稱該發(fā)現(xiàn)反映了一個(gè)事實(shí)即男性的思維程序偏向傳遞基因。

    "當(dāng)一位男性遇見一位漂亮的女性，他就會(huì)像我們所稱之為的'繁殖聚焦'"

    "但對(duì)女性而言，還會(huì)看其他方面，諸如財(cái)富、年輕與友善。僅男性外貌不太能影響女性。"