Los Angeles, CA (March 18. 2010) The presence of an attractive woman elevates（提升） testosterone（睾丸素） levels and physical risk taking in young men, according to a recent study in the inaugural（就职的，开幕的） issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE). Researchers asked young adult men to perform both easy and difficult tricks on skateboards, first in front of another male and then in front of a young, attractive female. The skateboarder's testosterone levels were measured after each trick.

When skateboarders attempt tricks, they make a split-second decision about whether to abort the trick or try to land it, based on a mid-air evaluation of the likelihood（可能性） of success and on the physical costs that failure might bring. It was that moment the researchers sought to examine because it resembles the type of risky decisions that young men make when behind the steering wheel of a car or when in physical confrontations with each other.

Consistent with（一致，符合） predictions, the young men took greater risks in the presence of the attractive female even when they knew there was a greater chance that they would crash. Testosterone levels were significantly higher in these men than in the men who were in the presence of another male.

"This experiment provides evidence for an effect that has existed in art, mythology（神话） , and literature for thousands of years: Beautiful women lead men to throw caution to the wind," write authors Richard Ronay and William von Hippel. "These findings suggest that, for men, the adaptive（适合的，适应的） benefits gained by enticing（迷人的，引诱的） mates and intimidating（吓人的） rivals may have resulted in evolved hormonal and neurological（神经学的） mechanisms that facilitated（促进，帮助） greater risk taking in the presence of attractive women."