Who’s Honoring Stephen Colbert’s Sperm Now? Psychology Today!
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Normally, Gratuitous Name Dropping type blog entries are reserved for our Zeitgeist posts. But name drops that make me laugh out loud get their own special post. This is not the first time Dr. Saad has written about the amazingness that is Sir Dr. Stephen Colbert – say it with me, people … Man Crush. What makes this especially LOLworthy is the fact that they use a Formula 401 graphic RIGHT ON THE POST! Hahahah!
Again, I think this is a very good time to mention that I am not, in fact, 12. Thank you.
The What-is-Beautiful-is-Good Effect Applies to Men’s Sperm Quality.
By Gad Saad, Ph.D. on May 25, 2009The what-is-beautiful-is-good effect is a pervasive social phenomenon. Generally speaking, it refers to the fact that attractive people receive favorable personality attributions solely as a function of their good looks (see Eagly et al., 1991 for a discussion of factors that affect the strength of this bias). This positive bias manifests itself in other settings wherein one might argue that it should not, such as one’s salary.
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Some of you might recall an earlier post wherein I discussed why Stephen Colbert is considered to be so sexy. He happens to be both intelligent and handsome. Hence, according to the results discussed in my last two posts, he is likely to possess some powerful “super sperm.” Perhaps this is why he peddles so feverishly his Formula 401 “premium man juice” (as he refers to it). What a humanitarian!
(h/t Jennie)
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14 Comments
May 28th, 2009 at 11:12 am
That is just priceless. I hope & expect to see something on the show next week about Stephen’s powerful Super Sperm. Sometimes it has got to be so much fun to be him :) Win win win!
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May 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
hahaha, omg, that’s great! it is an interesting idea that perhaps intelligence and attractiveness signal better sperm. I wonder if it wouldn’t be the opposite though, that those characteristics signal something else (like good health that could be inherited) and then they might have lower sperm quality compared to other males because they could mate more often, and have healthy offspring who survive. the correlation studies don’t support that though, sooooooo for the time being, FORMULA 401 FTW!
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May 28th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Comparing this to ornithological behavior, you could say that Stephen Colbert’s “lekking” behavior outranks ordinary males not only because of his wit and charm but his ability to reach millions of females via TV/internet – the ultimate lek. He has better plumage, a better “song” and “displays” more efficiently – he even tweets! ;)
FYI about bird leks:
At mating season, the male birds gather into small areas, or leks. A male defends this territory within the lek. Up to 30+ males can gather and frantically display trying to attract females. Females visit the displaying males, compare their virtues and pick a mate.
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May 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am
oh, very interesting! I didn’t know about leks before, but I love learning about animal behavior. thanks for the lesson.
you’re quite right– Stephen has a gigantic lek!
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May 28th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Thanks, if you like this kind of thing I highly recommend fab. David Attenborough’s “Life of Birds” now on youtube. More Bird sex here! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJgfcOd1R7E
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May 28th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Life of Birds is one of my all-time favorite nature series (Blue Planet is up there, too), it’s just amazing! Cool that it’s on youtube now.
Ok, Report writers, I want to see some lekking jokes, stat!
May 28th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
oh wow! thanks!! I have bookmarked that and I’m sure I’ll watch them all! I just love that stuff, and I’ve been especially interested in birds lately (probably because they tweet in my ears all the time, saying “learn about us. learn about us. squawk!”)
May 30th, 2009 at 6:27 am
“Stephen has a gigantic lek!”
I’m sure “Stephen” would agree! ;D
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May 28th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hahahaha!! I love these kind of articles so much.
I would love to know what Dr. Saad means by sperm quality though: does it mean that men with high attractiveness and intelligence have more sperm, that the sperm are more likely to impregnante or that they signal better quality genes that are within the sperm?…Wow, I just showed my geek evolutionary psychology side. =)
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May 28th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
“Stephen has a gigantic lek!”
That’s a good joke right there! I can hear it in the intro..
“Why won’t Branson fight me? Because I have a gigantic lek!” :)
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May 28th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I am so glad DB handled this one, because I had no idea what I could write about it that wouldn’t, you know, advertise the fact that mentally I am 12 years old.
I also love how the comment thread morphed into a discussion of bird sex! Only here… :-D
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May 28th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
And that is exactly why I love it here so much!
Oh and *snicker*.
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May 28th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Haha! Clearly someone has a man crush here. Lol. Interesting, though, that attractiveness and intelligence can affect the quality of a man’s sperm. I had no idea! I’ll be sure to look out for that in choosing my husband – LOL.
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May 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Leave it to Stephen to joke about having super sperm and find out he may actually have some.
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