How YOU doin'?

That title is supposed to be read in a Joey Tribbiani voice. He's the first person I thought of when I read about this startling headline in today's paper -- Men Assume Sexual Interest When There May Be None:

Even when they're seated across a table from each other in a first-time, five-minute conversation, a man tends to sexualize a woman and incorrectly assume sexual interest on her part, new research finds.

Okay, maybe men just react to "signals" while women are more cautious? Nah:

"It wasn't that men over-sexualized women only when there was chemistry," he explained. "Their ratings in terms of sexiness did not have a lot to do with whether she was extroverted, agreeable, or whether she behaved in particularly friendly ways."

Okay I'm thinking the good old "obvious theorem" might explain these results, but Prof. Levesque reaches a conclusion I think is a little creepy for a research scientist:

Levesque doesn't know why all the men in the study seemed to over-sexualize women, but he speculated that "it's got to be something about socialization, that men are being taught in some way to view women as sexual objects."

Now I don't doubt his conclusion might be true, but what bothers me is his claim that "it's got to be ... that men are being taught in some way to view women as sexual objects." Biology? Neurology? Chemistry? No! Prof. Levesque has ruled out all those in favor of a "socialization" explanation. It's funny that the very next paragraph in the story cites a chemistry professor who says, "two chemical routes to sexual arousal help explain the study findings." My off-the-cuff opinion is that there likely are multiple explanations (nature AND nurture) for the findings, but that "got to be socialization" explanation makes me think that good old Professor Levesque might have had this conclusion in mind all along.

Regardless, my favorite part is the advice Levesque offers:

For men, he said: "Don't think every women you meet is attracted to you." ... That may not be the case.

For women, Levesque said, the best advice "may be understanding that more often than not he is going to be thinking in sexual terms."