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A team of behavioral scientists from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, found through survey results that people consider men who drive luxury cars to have higher sexual value and other positive attributes. In their study, reported in the journal Personality and individual differencesthe group conducted two surveys of people driving expensive cars.
Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that men who drive expensive cars attract women looking for a partner who can provide them with a certain standard of living. But this evidence has not been tested more formally. In this new effort, the research team sought to find out what women and men really think about men who drive high-end cars and what the owners of those cars think about themselves. To this end, they sent out two surveys.
The first survey asked potential respondents their opinions on luxury cars and the men who drive them, including their feelings on mating values and male dominance. The team received 171 responses, 93 of which were from women. To avoid bias, researchers used fabricated people examples in the surveys. The second survey asked respondents who owned luxury cars questions about how they felt about themselves and their place in society and whether they thought they would make a better friend than someone who drove a ordinary car. The researchers received 409 responses, including 206 from women.
Analyzing the returned surveys, the research team found that the majority of respondents (both men and women) viewed men driving luxury vehicles as having higher sexual value and social dominance and were often seen as more competent in their lives and in their work. in some cases, like smarter. The survey results also showed that most respondents believed they would benefit from personal or intimate relationships with such men.
Researchers also found that people who drive luxury cars view themselves as having higher social status and therefore believe they have more self-confidence than others. Most also consider themselves to have higher sexual value.
More information:
João Lucas G. da Silva et al, Tell me what you’re buying and I’ll tell you how you’re doing: Luxury cars increase perceptions of status, social dominance and attractiveness, Personality and individual differences (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2023.112489
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