When temptation strikes

Women stay, men play

Worried about that flirtatious woman who works in your boyfriend’s office? According to scientists, you should be!

John Lydon, a psychologist at McGill University in Montreal, says that men are more likely to give in to temptation than women. “Men may have the will, but not the way,” claims Lydon.

The study that his claim is based on, though, seems a little strange to us.

Researchers asked volunteers to fill in blanks in a word game. Men saw “BE_A_E” as “became” and women saw it as “beware.” Similarly, women saw “LO_AL” as “loyal,” but men saw “local.”

In the second part of the experiment, some of the volunteers were coached in strategies to defend their relationships, and then presented with virtual temptations on computer screens. Of the untrained men, 75 per cent succumbed, while only 38 per cent of trained men did the same.