Is being a musician really a chick magnet? Should you take guitar lessons to serenade your way into a woman’s heart?
A new study argues that actually there is something to that. The research found that women were more receptive to a Facebook friend request from a stranger if he was holding a guitar in his picture than if he wasn’t demonstrating any musical aptitude.
The study’s researchers began by creating two nearly identical male Facebook profiles. The profiles featured all the same information and had the same profile picture, that of the same smiling man sitting in the same location.
However, in one of the profile pictures, the man sat with his hands on his lap, and in the other, the man held a guitar on his lap in proper position as if he was in the middle of playing it when the picture was taken.
“Fourteen out of 50 women sent a positive response
to the profile featuring the man holding a guitar.”
Researchers sent friend requests to 100 single college-aged women. Half of these women received a friend request from the profile featuring the man holding a guitar, while the other half received a request from the profile with the same exact man simply sitting there (without a guitar).
All friend requests from both profiles were sent with the message, “Hey, what’s up? I like your photo.”
Ultimately, five out of 50 women sent a positive response to the profile with the plain profile picture, while 14 out of 50 women sent a positive response to the profile featuring the man holding a guitar, with researchers ultimately concluding:
“In sum, we showed that in the Facebook realm, men who hold a guitar in their profile photo are perceived as more attractive.”
From: Scott Barry Kaufman.
