Women intimidate men

So tell us something we don't know.

But it's now been proved.

Not that proving something you know to be true makes it any more valid.

But hey, this isn't an exploration of Wittgenstein, this is bookofjoe.

So let's move on, shall we?

Work just published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior found that "powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less accomplished women."

The study also showed that men were much more likely to date women professionally subordinate than superior.

Here's Richard Morin's story on the study, from last Sunday's Washington Post.

Men: Insecure, Or Merely Intimidated?

Many more men than women prefer to marry beneath them, claims psychologist Stephanie Brown at the University of Michigan.

Brown and her research partner, Brian Lewis of UCLA, asked 120 male and 208 female undergraduates to rate their attraction to a person described as either their supervisor, their peer or their assistant at work, based on a photograph they were shown.

Men were significantly more likely to say they preferred to date and marry a woman when she was described as a work peer or an assistant than when she was identified as a supervisor.

In fact, the lower the status of the woman, the more that guys indicated they were interested in dating or marrying her.

Women, on the other hand, showed no discernable preference for coupling with a subordinate.

"These findings provide empirical support for the widespread belief that powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less accomplished women," Brown said in a statement released with the study, which was published in the latest issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.