Men Usually Go For The Quick Reward
August 27, 2008 by Scott Wharton
Filed under Men's Health
I had a boss that always used to say that a fast nickel is better than a slow dime. Meaning sometimes when your trying to sell something it’s better to go with a quick sale and lose out on a little bit of money as opposed to sitting on it for awhile and making a little extra on it. This was the same guy that had a booth at a flea market and bought a bicycle from a lady right beside him for 10 bucks, just to turn around and sell it to someone else for 20 bucks. The lady he bought it from didn’t like that very much. Of course this was the same guy that had a lot of little inside projects going on within our company and was fired for it when new owners took over.
On to the story at hand. Am article in this months men’s health focused on a study that showed that men often went for the smaller, quick reward when a sexual promise was in effect:
The promise of sex can impair our judgment. New research in the Journal Of Consumer Research reports that sexual urges make men crave quick rewards when they make decision about money or food. In the study, men who were given lingerie to fondle or shown videos of women running in bikinis tended to be content with small immediate monetary rewards instead of a bigger one that involved waiting. They made similar decisions about candy and soda. Sexual stimuli snap men’s minds into the present, researchers speculate, making fast rewards more appealing. Remember that on your next dinner date when the dessert cart rolls up.
Do you make snap decisions when the reward is a quick one, or do you hold out for the big cheese?
Image Source: usmint.gov
I tend to choose quick rewards much more than I like to admit, but I do make a conscious efforts to avoid these types of decisions.
When I was very young, my father had cup. On the side of the cup was printed “ENDURANCE”. I didn’t know the meaning of the word and after seeing it around the house, I eventually asked what it meant. I wanted a short, simple definition to satisfy my curiosity.
Instead, I received a lengthy lecture on the meaning of endurance and the concept of delayed gratification. Although I didn’t get the brief definition I was looking for, I did receive an important life lesson from my father and I’ll never forget it.