The Sad Thing Men Do to Impress Attractive Women

In news that will leave you feeling all kinds of bummed, the latest research suggests that guys donate more money to charity when they see other dudes donating to an attractive woman’s fundraising page.

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For the study, published in the journal Current Biology, researchers reviewed 668 fundraising pages from the 2014 London Marathon. To be included in the research, each of the pages had to feature a photo of the person raising money, and that person had to have received at least one donation larger than $75, which the researchers considered to be “generous.” Researchers showed each fundraiser’s page to four people, who rated the fundraiser’s attractiveness on a scale of one to 10. Then the researchers looked at who donated to the page before and after the biggest donation was made. 

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The study authors found that guys donated significantly more money to the women who were ranked more attractive than the women who were ranked less attractive. Plus, after a male donor made a large donation to an attractive woman, other men were four times more likely to donate a large sum to that woman, as well.

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But get this: The researchers found that male fundraisers’ attractiveness did not seem to influence how much the women gave to their pages. At the same time, other women’s donations to those attractive guys had no effect on the amount ladies gave to the fundraisers.

The study authors note that the competitive drive to donate more money to good-looking ladies when other guys are throwing down cash is probably subconscious. They suggest that those actions might be caused by a desire to follow social norms or look more attractive to the opposite sex. 

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But before you run to update your marathon fundraising page to look like your Tinder account, you should know that the study authors say that more research needs to be done to solidify the reasons behind why guys donate more in this scenario. Plus, the attractiveness rating of each fundraiser is totally subjective, which makes it hard to say for sure if it influenced the guys’ donation.

Well, then: You’ve now got one more example of how biology might impact guys in weird, weird ways. Thanks, science.