Everybody knows that we men can endure all sorts of pain without complaining other than - I think I'll skip the second half of the sentence...

Anyway, what is it that makes us so strong? A new experiment has probed that question. Male participants were asked as part of an experiment to hold their hand and part of the arm as long as possible in icy water. In one condition the female research assistant had her hair combed back, wore a white overall, kept a large distance to the participant, had no make-up and read the instruction from a sheet.

In the other condition the identical female assistant had her hair open, wore a tight jeans allowing a glimpse of her tummy a bit below the navel, stood close to the male, had make-up and freely told the instruction in a much more conversational manner.

Participants in the second condition kept their hand more than twice as long in the water than in the first condition and the difference would have been much larger if there would not have been an upper limit of 2 1/2 min to prevent damage.

What does that show? We men are ready to endure more pain if kindly asked in a colloquial tone and not addressed in an unpersonal way. It shows how sensible we are.

Wolfgang