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Scientists have discovered that not only do men get dumb in the presence of women, but that just the mention of a woman’s name can have the same effect.

Psychologist Johan Karremans and author of the study, Sanne Nauts, distributed the Stroop test (just a basic cognitive test) to 71 men and women and asked them to respond via instant message from a “monitor” that would pop up either a guy or girl’s name. While womens’ cognitive skills weren’t affected either way, the guys, although completely unaffected by a fellow guy’s name, failed in their cognitive skills miserably after they heard a woman’s name.

During a second experiment, all the participants were told that a man or woman would be IMing them. Even though no IMs were sent, the guys still got all flustered, and again failed. The reasoning for it is unclear, but Naults’ explanation is that men just may be more likely “to perceive relatively neutral situations in sexualized terms” than women. Ha! Thanks Mr. Obvious.