The rev and whir of an expensive car could be igniting more than just the engine, according to a new study from the United Kingdom.
The sounds of exotic luxury car engines are linked to sexual arousal, according to a September study, conducted by the insurance company Hiscox.
The study tested testosterone levels found in the saliva of participants before and after hearing the roar of different car engines. Testosterone levels, which are linked to sexual interest, were higher in both men and women after hearing the engine roar of a Maserati and Lamborghini, while most had decreased levels of testosterone after hearing the hybrid sedan’s engine.
“We have now scientifically proven the physical attraction people feel when it comes to cars,” Hiscox Managing Director Steve Langan said in a press release. “Luxury cars do quite literally turn heads.”
Women most likely associated the engine roars with strength and dominance, which are traditionally male characteristics that are essential when women are searching for a suitable mate, Boston psychologist Andrea Herber said.
“I think of it from more of an evolutionary standpoint,” she said. “What were the women associating with the sounds? Were they associating the sounds with characteristics that would be reproductively advantageous like power and money?”
Herber said the study may have had different results had it been conducted outside the Western world or involved homosexuals.
Product marketing can evoke sexual responses to high-end cars, relationship psychologist Dan Pollets said.
“Any conditional stimulus that becomes associated with sex has the potential to evoke arousal,” he said. “Certainly marketing makes the association between sleekness and design of these autos and sexuality.”
Though there is no composite Lamborghini driver, men tend to buy Lamborghinis more often than women, Lamborghini Boston sales associate Todd Currie said.
Currie said he had no doubts about the sexual appeal of the high-end automobile.
“A Lamborghini is definitely an exotic car,” he said. “While they are excellent driving cars, people also buy them for the attention. I think women definitely get turned on by the car.”
Many agree that a hot car is conducive to getting a hot date.
“I definitely think [the study] is true,” College of Arts and Sciences freshman Ben Vukov said. “That’s pretty slick to buy a car to pick up chicks. Girls want to be in their two-seater, bright red convertibles.”
CAS junior Lauren Blumberg said a high-end car not only turns her head, but it also makes the car’s driver more attractive to her.
“I do like flashy sports cars,” Blumberg said. “I don’t think it can make an unattractive guy hot, but it can definitely make an OK-looking guy better-looking. There was a guy in my high school that was OK-looking but became much more attractive because he had a hot Mustang.”
Though the study claims people are more attracted to expensive cars, Lauren Cherewyk said high-end cars are too flashy, and the driver of a car is what really gets her engine revving. Find good sports car deals by checking out the used cars in murrieta.
“I think trucks are sexy,” Cherewyk, a College of Communication sophomore, said. “I like a man’s man in a truck,” though she added, “I think it’s sexier when a man doesn’t have to show off.”
