To be rich, a guy has got to gamble. And to have the urge to gamble, the guy has got to have sex in his mind!

This was the finding of a recent brain-scan study by US scientists who sought to understand what’s going on in the minds of the world’s billionaires when they make risky financial gambles.

In the study, young men who were shown erotic pictures were found to develop a stronger desire to make large financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such a snake, or something neutral, such as a stapler.

The arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken, according to an Associated Press report on the study last week. The research appears in the April 2008 edition of the journal “NeuroReport.”

“You have a need in an evolutionary sense for both money and women. They trigger the same brain area,” said Camelia Kuhnen, a Northwestern University finance professor who conducted the study with a Stanford University psychologist.

The study only involved 15 heterosexual young men at Stanford University. It focused on the sex and money hub, the V-shaped nucleus accumbens, which sits near the base of the brain and plays a central role in what you experience as pleasure.

When that hub was activated by the erotic images, the men were far more likely to bet high on a random chance game that would earn them either a dollar or a dime. Each man made more than 50 gambles under brain scans.

Stanford psychologist Brian Knutson, a lead author of the study, says the trigger for making risky financial decisions doesn’t always have to be sex. It could be chocolate or a winning lottery ticket, he says.

Kuhnen said the same finding could also be true for women, but he said they didn’t test women because it is more difficult to find an erotic image that would appeal to many different heterosexual women compared to heterosexual men.

Putting it in evolutionary perspective, Kevin McCabe, professor of economics, law and neuroscience at George Mason University said the link between sex and greed goes back hundreds of thousands of years to men’s evolutionary role as provider or resource gatherer to attract women.

The study conforms with recent research that indicates men shown a pornographic movie were more likely to make riskier sexual decisions. Another suggests straight men think less about their financial future after being shown pictures of pretty women.

So this is it – the solution to global poverty! Just show pictures of sexy women in offices and other places where men gather, and they would be stampeding all over to work their butts off to become rich guys, millionaires and billionaires all!

I wish it was that simple.

(Note on illustrations: Above, the basic difference between male and female brains. Below, the brain of a typical male adult — hehe) 

There is always a time to reveal “stuff” that you’re afraid to divulge but certainly must.  I myself find it a little odd to reveal my true salary to prospects during a job hunt.  I think it’s a little healthy to keep something to yourself.

But at some point during your job search, you will likely be asked about your salary history — how much you’re making at your current job, and maybe even how much you made before that.  It is a little right for future employers to find out how much the industry thinks about you.  And we all know that the industry has it’s own official salary scales.  Future employers would often weigh you a little different once they know how much you’re worth currently.

But when asked about this, it helps to understand the reason behind why employers do ask.  It’s just really two things:  1. Employers want to gauge your current market value, and 2. Employers want a sense of what salary range you’ll be expecting with them.

Let me give you some advice on how much or less you need to reveal your worth:

1.  Play it honest but discreet – if you fill up an application form and you find a blank space asking you how much you would like to receive put dashes in the blank field.  It tells your interviewer that you saw that needed info but it gives them a sense that you want to talk to them face to face about it.  At least if the employer is really interested, you’d be in face to face dialogue with them.

But this could sometimes backfire.  The employer may also sense that you are not too honest with them upfront.  That’s OK.  If they don’t call you, then they’re not really interested in the first place.  Maybe they just want to know that and be uninteresting or uninterested.

2.  Mention industry rates – if they really press you for a solid answer, then at least you can be honest by saying you are uncomfortable to say it at this stage of the interview.  Tell them you’d be willing to “tell all” if their interest in you is really really strong.  That will give them a sense that you want a commitment from them before you commit these personal info.  You may also mention “industry rates” the very least. 

3.  Mention remuneration diversity – you can probably be good to say a “base” rate you with other benefits.  The base rate at least will give them something to chew on, and you can negotiate other forms of remuneration like benefits and other perks later on.

At the end of the day, you would want your future employer to not feel being starved of information.  Also that you would feel you haven’t divulged a whole lot and thereby remain uninteresting from here on.