Females put off when males lose brawls

LONDON - A female who fancies a particular male is most likely to be put off when he loses a slugfest.

In such an eventuality, some primitive parts of the female’s brain might actually overrule the love she feels for him, according to Stanford University biologists in the US.

Experiments with African cichlid fish showed how when a female witnesses a favoured male losing a fight with another male, her feelings towards him change.

Areas of the female’s brain associated with anxiety showed increased activity after witnessing an altercation, according to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It is the same as if a woman were dating a boxer and saw her potential mate get the crap beat out of him really badly,” a Stanford release quoted study author Julie Desjardins, postdoctoral researcher in biology at Stanford in the US, as saying.

“Our intuition is that this response is likely to occur under similar conditions in humans because the brain areas involved are present in all vertebrates and perform comparable functions,” said study author Russ Fernald, Stanford professor of biology.

Desjardins said that with people, the subconscious change of heart would likely happen in response to a failure in any competitive situation - whether it’s losing at a game or missing out on a promotion at work - not just a brawl.

Among the fish, the researchers also found that when the preferred male prevailed, the female showed increased excitation in parts of the brain associated with reproduction, as well as some of the brain’s pleasure centres.