Today's topic in psych class was the mere exposure effect. For those that don't know, it basically says that the longer you spend around someone, the more likely you are to be attracted to them, either platonically or romantically.

During the lecture, in which I'm guessing somewhere between 150--200 students are in attendance, there were questions posed to the class about whether they had met someone online and if they had, whether their opinions of them changed after spending time with them meeting them in person. The poll revealed about half had changed their mind toward the person negatively, less than half changed their mind positively, and a much smaller amount didn't change opinions at all.

During a brief discussion of why people were inclined to change their minds negatively toward someone they had first met online and then in person, the consensus seemed to be that people lie on their profiles. Not exactly a shocker. However, what I found very interesting was that when the professor began to detail studies showing what men and women typically lie about on their profiles, he first started with the men, stating that the #1 thing men typically tend to lie about is their height. Now at this point, the ENTIRE lecture hall burst out into laughter. It's psych so it's majority women but there were plenty of guys too, and I didn't see if any or much of the men were laughing because I didn't think to look as I wasn't expecting this. Judging by the sound however they were all female.

Now the part that stunned me. In literally the same breath (after the women of the class calmed down from their laughing fit over men lying about their height), the professor then went on to state the #1 thing that women lie about in their dating profiles, which is their weight. Can you guess what happened when he said this? It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Not a single laugh from a SINGLE person in the hall. I understand that women wouldn't want to laugh at themselves being overweight but, you would think that if gender equality was the goal here, men should find it equally as funny that women are overweight yet lie about it to attract a potential mate, especially given the fact that weight is controllable to a large extent while height is not. But they didn't. Complete and utter silence.

I have a theory about this. Men, while prone to joking about one another and breaking balls, do this as a form of male bonding. Women, don't do this and when they do it's out of place and odd. However they seemed to have no problem laughing at poor short mens' height, I mean they got a really good kick out of it. And my theory is that men have the reputation of being callous and unfeeling, and women are empathetic and caring, but I think it's the other way around. I think the men felt they shouldn't laugh because we are taught that we should know better than to make fun of people that we legitimately don't know for no good reason, especially something as sensitive as one's weight. Men generally try to build one another up. Women however build each other up to tear each other down, and so for them laughing at someone's lack of height, especially a male, is just par for the course.

I felt for a split second I was given a glimpse into the true nature of women, for better or worse, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it other than to say that I was surprised to see it so explicitly right in front of my face.