I love it when I'm vindicated by biology!

Men stare at crotches

The Online Journalism Review reports on Jakob Nielsen's use of an eye-tracker to look at how different people read the Web -- particularly news. There are lots of interesting findings, but the best is the revelation that men fixate on any visible genital areas in photos -- even animals' crotches come in for a good eyeballing.

Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed.

This image of George Brett was part of a larger page with his biographical information. All users tested looked the image, but there was a distinct difference in focus between men and women.

Coyne adds that this difference doesn’t just occur with images of people. Men tend to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club site.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/14/men_stare_at_crotche.html