Men's Arm Strength Affects Their Political Views - HBR's The Daily Stat

July 04, 2013 Among men of high economic status, the greater the self-reported circumference of the flexed bicep, the greater the opposition (on average) to measures that would redistribute wealth to the poor. But among men with low economic status, bicep circumference is associated with greater support for such measures, says a team led by Michael Bang Petersen of Aarhus University in Denmark. Women's bicep size had no impact on their views. Men with greater upper-body strength tend to feel more entitled, reflecting a pattern in nature in which stronger males are more willing to assert their self-interest. The researchers studied more than a thousand people in three countries, disqualifying several males for reporting unrealistic bicep circumferences of 250 centimeters or more. SOURCE: The Ancestral Logic of Politics: Upper-Body Strength Regulates Men's Assertion of Self-Interest Over Economic Redistribution