Men get stupid around pretty women. Must be true: they did a study.

From the “I sure hope they didn’t spend tax money on this” files: a study proves that men get stupid around pretty women.

The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or ‘cognitive resources’ trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

I’d take issue with that – you mean forming cohesive sentences isn’t a necessary “cognitive resource” for impressing beautiful women? – except that any male who is either in or has gone through puberty already knows this.

Luckily, if any tax money did go into funding this study, it was all Dutch.

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

Phew. He had it bad.