IT'S official: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
A new study asking Australians to rank which everyday experiences give them the most pleasure has quashed the long-standing assumption that men prefer sex over food.
The survey, conducted by Magnum icecream, polled almost 10,000 people across the country, The Advertiser reports.
Men rated taste sensations as their top pleasure trigger, with physical arousal (including sex) coming in fourth. Personal accomplishment was second, then the need to relax.
The results were reached through a "pleasure quotient test'', which uses a scale to determine the frequency and intensity to which individuals are stimulated by certain triggers.
The scale found men gained more pleasure from food, and life in general, more so than their female counterparts, who did most of the cooking and treasured values.
Private therapist and UniSA adjunct senior lecturer of psychology Dr David Haynes said he was surprised by the findings.
"Women are more into values as a whole and men are into bottom lines and logic - but why that would give one more pleasure from food or from life in general - I can't imagine.
"From a Freudian perspective, it would be viewed as a man's regression to childhood, and the boys are being babies, treated by their mothers/wives,'' he said.
Dr Haynes said a possible contributor to the results could be that many men were used to being fed by women.
"If you did the stats, you would find that a majority of the cooking in Australia is done by women.
"And you know what it's like - when you've spent a couple of hours cooking, you don't actually get that much pleasure from eating it - but if you have just come in from work, been sat down and given a nice bowl of food - that's different.
''Apprentice carpenter Aaron Looyestyn-Zitzen, 18, from Houghton, found it difficult to decide which he enjoyed more - food or sex.
"It's probably 50/50 - I do love food,'' he said. "You have to eat to live.''
From:
News.com.au Top stories | News from Australia and around the world online | News.com.au
A new study asking Australians to rank which everyday experiences give them the most pleasure has quashed the long-standing assumption that men prefer sex over food.
The survey, conducted by Magnum icecream, polled almost 10,000 people across the country, The Advertiser reports.
Men rated taste sensations as their top pleasure trigger, with physical arousal (including sex) coming in fourth. Personal accomplishment was second, then the need to relax.
The results were reached through a "pleasure quotient test'', which uses a scale to determine the frequency and intensity to which individuals are stimulated by certain triggers.
The scale found men gained more pleasure from food, and life in general, more so than their female counterparts, who did most of the cooking and treasured values.
Private therapist and UniSA adjunct senior lecturer of psychology Dr David Haynes said he was surprised by the findings.
"Women are more into values as a whole and men are into bottom lines and logic - but why that would give one more pleasure from food or from life in general - I can't imagine.
"From a Freudian perspective, it would be viewed as a man's regression to childhood, and the boys are being babies, treated by their mothers/wives,'' he said.
Dr Haynes said a possible contributor to the results could be that many men were used to being fed by women.
"If you did the stats, you would find that a majority of the cooking in Australia is done by women.
"And you know what it's like - when you've spent a couple of hours cooking, you don't actually get that much pleasure from eating it - but if you have just come in from work, been sat down and given a nice bowl of food - that's different.
''Apprentice carpenter Aaron Looyestyn-Zitzen, 18, from Houghton, found it difficult to decide which he enjoyed more - food or sex.
"It's probably 50/50 - I do love food,'' he said. "You have to eat to live.''
From:
News.com.au Top stories | News from Australia and around the world online | News.com.au