A team of psychologists at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego examined the effect of women with visibly erect nipples on heterosexual men.
The study, collectively titled "The Point of Nipple Erection," are published in two parts: the first being "The experience and projection of perceived emotional states while viewing women with and without erect nipples" published in 2020 and the second part, titled "The effect of nipple erection on intended and expected altruism," published in 2021 - both appearing in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.
In their published reports, researchers explained that the study aims to examine whether female nipple erection is "perceived as a sign of sexual arousal or interest" and later inquired whether this perception changes the male hypothetical behavior.
Part 1: Examining the Experience and Projection of Perceived Emotional States
For the first part of the study, both male and female participants were shown randomized slides with pairs of identical images of women. One set of the photos had visibly erect nipples while the other set did not. Researchers then asked the participants to rate the photographs based on 16 different physiological and emotional states - including those that describe positive, negative, and sexually aroused conditions.
Furthermore, researchers also obscured the faces of the women in the photographs to prevent facial cues from influencing the participants' emotional states. Additionally, levels of erectness in the study were graded by independent raters.
While both men and women were found to generally project positive emotions on the photos with erect nipples, men projected more sexually aroused emotions onto the images. Researchers also observed that men's self-ratings for sexy and positive emotions were closely similar to their ratings of the presented stimuli. On the other hand, women were found to report significantly lesser self-rating for sexy and positive emotions compared to the stimuli.
Part 2: Observing Effects on Intended and Expected Altruism
As the 2020 study illustrated that heterosexual men tend to perceive nipple erection toward more sexually receptive states, the second part aims to examine whether this could change the male hypothetical behavior. In short, researchers were able to demonstrate how the presence of erect nipples actually affects heterosexual men, i.e, that they would be willing to go out of their way to be close to them.
Researchers cite an example for the objective of the study: "For example, would men be more willing to assist women with nipple erection as opposed to those without?"
Similar to the first part, heterosexual men were tasked with scoring two sets of photographs - one with erect nipples and another without. Afterward, they were asked with a series of questions aimed at observing possible changes in behavior, particularly in the likelihood of exhibiting altruistic behavior - lending her $100, help her when her car breaks down, or offer tutoring sessions.
Unsurprisingly, men were more likely to help women with visibly erect nipples. This behavior is magnified in cases that would allow them to get close to the woman in the photographs. Aside from the fact that men found the women with nipple erection as being "more deserving of altruism," researchers also noted that those women presented should be included in their respective social groups.
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