I remember a time I was chatting with a woman I was very interested in. My heart was racing, I was sweating profusely, and the room was spinning uncontrollably. Suddenly a group of friends came over and asked me to introduce them to the girl I was talking to. With all eyes on me, I remember turning to look at my best friends in the entire world and realizing, much to my horror and embarrassment, that I couldn’t remember any of their names!

Johan C. Karremans and colleagues at Radboud University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands tested the prediction that mixed-sex interactions temporarily cause a decline in cognitive functioning. It should be noted that there was evidence that women’s cognitive performance did tend to decline after mixed-sex interactions if they reported having a relatively strong goal to impress.

This suggest that there may be something special about mixed-sex interactions that impair cognitive functioning. — psychologytoday.com