Post: #1

Quote:Professor Petersen said: ‘While many think of politics as a modern phenomenon, it has - in a sense - always been with our species.’
In the days of our early ancestors, decisions about the distribution of resources were not made in courthouses or legislative offices, but through shows of strength.

With this in mind, Professor Petersen and Professor Sznycer hypothesised that upper-body strength - a proxy for the ability to physically defend or acquire resources - would predict men's opinions about the redistribution of wealth.
The researchers collected data on bicep size, socio-economic status, and support for economic redistribution from hundreds of people in the United States, Argentina and Denmark.
In line with their hypotheses, the data revealed that wealthy men with high upper-body strength were less likely to support redistribution, while less wealthy men of the same strength were more likely to support it.

Quote:Men with low upper-body strength, on the other hand, were less likely to support their own self-interest.
Wealthy men of this group showed less resistance to redistribution, while poor men showed less support.
Professor Petersen said: ‘Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest - just as if disputes over national policies were a matter of direct physical confrontation among small numbers of individuals, rather than abstract electoral dynamics among millions.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...views.html

Post: #2

You warped the study's finding in your headline. The title should be something like "Stronger men more likely to favor policies that serve their self-interest."

Post: #3

Post: #4

Having time to spend in the gym is a privilege of the affluent. I don't really see anything we didn't already know here.

Post: #5

I'm with Basilransom here. I once read an article in The Economist about this stuff; it said that strong men tend to support the policies that favour their own social social class, while less muscular men are less influenced by their own situation in their political opinions; all these had probably to do with the strategies of survival of male apes living in groups.
On the other side, Vicious' idea is a good one: that scientist should also measure obesity and other factors related social class.