Mental Health

Men Gamble More When Exposed to "Hunkier" Counterparts

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Apr 15, 2015 10:25 PM EDT

Instead of having sexy women passing out drinks, casino owners should think about hiring handsome men. New research reveals that being exposed to better-looking men boosts risky financial behavior.

Researchers believe that this financial phenomenon might be a way for heterosexual men to cope with their feelings of inferiority, and increase their chances of receiving female attention.

The latest findings suggest that men will take bigger financial risks after being exposed to pictures of men they perceive to be more attractive than themselves, according to the researchers from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

After analyzing the four behavioral experiments, which involved 820 men and women, revealed that heterosexual men were significantly more likely to make take riskier bets after seeing Abercrombie & Fitch-like models, according to New Scientist.

Interestingly, this phenomenon didn't happen when men looked at sexy Victoria's Secret-like models.

"In evolutionary history, men have faced greater intrasexual competition in attracting women as a mating partner," said lead researcher Eugene Chan of University of Technology, according to The Independent.

"Thus, when the average heterosexual man sees males who are more physically-attractive than he is, he is motivated to increase his desirability as a mating partner to women, prompting him to accrue money, and taking financial risks helps him to do so," he explained.

"This financial risk taking occurs because men want to appear more desirable to women, and having more money is one way to do so," even though there's a great chance they'll lose all of it and therefore land them in a worse position, according to Chan.

The findings are published in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior

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