Results from Canadian McGill University study, found that images of meat actually calmed men down and made them less aggressive.
The actual result of less aggression might reflect a genetic disposition to feel comfort at the sight of meat, with it being associated with gatherings of family and friends, the study's authors said.
Speaking of how ancient ancestors might have adapted their responses to the sight of meat ready for consumption, Kachanoff said "It wouldn't be advantageous to be aggressive anymore because you would've already used your aggression to acquire the meat, and furthermore, you'd be surrounded by people who share . . . your DNA."
The research was conducted with 82 male subjects who were asked to inflict varying degrees of punishment on actors if they made errors while reading scripts. It was presented as a multi-tasking study to the subjects, who were sorting various pictures while the actors read.
The punishment was made by subjecting the script reader to various volumes of sound, with the highest levels believed by the subjects to be painful for the reader. The subjects were less likely to attempt to inflict pain on the reader if it was an image of meat they were looking at while the mistake was made.
Bruce Friedrich, vice-president of policy for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called the study's results "interesting." "Clearly, eating meat does support horrible violence, but apparently somebody seeing meat that is not directly relatable to the animal does not cause people to become more aggressive," Friedrich said.
Kachanoff said his group had some vegetarians in the test group, and no major differences were found in their responses. Studies like this prove that academics will go to great lengths to get their school to ante up for a barbecue.