Ja, vermoeden psychologen Mark Van Vugt en Wendy Iredale. Ze doen dit op basis van 2 experimenten op 2 groepen van enerzijds 65 mannen en anderzijds 65 vrouwen die allemaal rond de 20 jaar oud waren. Ze stelden vast dat mannen vaker positief handelden als er een aantrekkelijke vrouw in de buurt was dan als de begeleider een andere man was. De onderzoekers omschrijven het als pauwgedrag.

Lees het abstract van de paper:

Two experiments were undertaken. For the first, 65 men and 65 women, all of an average age of 21, anonymously played a cooperation game where they could donate money via a computer program to a group fund. Donations were selfless acts, as all other players would benefit from the fund, whilst the donor wouldn’t necessarily receive anything in return.

Players did not know who they were playing with. They were observed by either someone of the same sex or opposite sex — two physically attractive volunteers, one man and one woman. Men were found to do significantly more good deeds when observed by the opposite sex. Whilst the number of good deeds made by women didn’t change, regardless of who observed.

For the second experiment, groups of males were formed. Males were asked to make a number of public donations. These increased when observed by an attractive female, where they were found to actively compete with one another. When observed by another male, however, donations didn’t increase.

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