Minocycline Could Stop Men from Cheating

A study by professors in Japan has discovered a drug that can stop a man from being seduced and led astray by attractive women.



Professors from the Waseda and Kyushu Universities wanted to test the mind-altering affects of taking the antibiotic, minocycline.

They simulated honey traps, using eight photos of attractive women, and got 98 male participants to rate how trustworthy they thought the women would be.


The men were split into two groups. Group one was given a four-day oral treatment course of minocycline, and a second, control group was given a placebo.


Looking at a picture showing a female's face, male players were told to choose how much of 1300 yen (around £8.58) they would give to each female.

If they chose to share the money, the amount would be tripled.
The men were then told that the females would get a choice of whether to share the money, or take it all.

The males were also asked to evaluate how trustworthy they thought each female was, as well as how physically attractive she was.

All of the photographed females had actually decided, in advance, to ‘betray' the male players. Therefore, male participants played with untrustworthy female partners, but were unaware of the deception.

The results show that trusting behaviour in male participants significantly increased in relation to the perceived attractiveness of the female.



Yet, attractiveness did not impact trusting behaviour when the men in the study were given minocycline.

The study also found that the attractiveness of the females increased when the money element was introduced.

The study said: 'In movies, a female spy often wins the trust of her male target using her physical attractiveness.


'The male target usually suspects that she is a spy, but because of her attractiveness, he becomes amorously entangled with the female spy despite concerns regarding her trustworthiness.

'For males, allocating valuable resources to physically attractive females may be evolutionarily adaptive, in that it may increase the probability of producing attractive offspring under natural selection.

However, this tendency toward resource allocation to attractive females creates ‘noise’ that complicates decisions in short-term economic exchanges, leading to the tendency to ‘honey trap’ males with this behaviour.'




WHAT IS MINOCYCLINE?

Minocycline is a tetracycline antibiotic used for the treatment of acne.

It is also used for other skin infections such as MRSA and Lyme disease, and can help with asthma symptoms.

Recent tests have found that minocycline can also reduce symptoms associated with mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and depression.