Let's Talk Attraction (Page 8)

Do men and women really know the qualities they want in a mate? According to a study, there's a discrepancy between what men and women say they want in a potential partner and who they actually choose to date. The study comes out of Northwestern University and was authored by Eli Finkel, who devised a unique word-association methodology to determine how important physical attractiveness is to the participants when...

Can a man and woman be “just friends”? That depends on who you ask - the woman or the man. A new study looked at 88 opposite-sex pairs of friends and found men were far more likely to view their female friends as potential romantic partners than vice versa. Not only are men likely to view their female friends as potential romantic partners, they are also likely to believe their female friends share their unspoken...

If you’ve ever played hard to get, you’ve learned something modern research is only just now validating: This dating tactic actually works. A recent publication, authored by Peter Jonason of the University of Western Sydney in Australia, looked at four different studies combining data from hundreds of college-aged individuals. Jonason found respondents play hard to get for a variety of reasons, but more often than...

Online dating sites are facing a new wave of competition from mobile apps focusing on offline matchmaking. Mobile apps strip the online dating formula down to its essentials. Like many online dating programs, these apps use compatibility tests to match singles with each other and then utilize GPS to let users know when compatible singles are near their present location. These apps essentially focus on facilitating...

What signals do women send by the colors they wear? According to research published by Andrew Elliot (University of Rochester), when a woman wears red, she sends out a clear signal she’s more interested in sex than if she wears a neutral tone. As part of his investigation, Elliot showed heterosexual and bisexual men a picture of a woman and asked them to rate her attractiveness. Half the men saw the woman...

While we all like to think we make our own decisions when it comes to who we select as a partner, a new study suggests the opposite is true. The study was conducted by Jessica Yorinski, a biologist at Duke University, who showed participants pictures of both men and women and asked those participants to rate how attractive they found the man or woman in the picture. Yorinski assigned an average attractiveness...

Can women flirt to gain the upper hand when negotiating? A new study attempted to answer this question, setting out to determine the potential positive or negative impact from women using their “feminine charm” in negotiations. The participants consisted of 100 students (36 female and 64 male) who were enrolled in an MBA negotiation course. Students were asked to fill out a survey to determine their likelihood...

Do you have a hard time trying to figure out if someone is feeling the same attraction vibe you are when you meet guys out on the dating circuit? One of the most challenging and frustrating aspects of dating is being able to read the signals you’re receiving from the guy you’re going out with to determine if he’s really interested in you. Does he genuinely have an interest? Or is he just being nice and secretly...

Psychologists have long considered studying the eyes as a way of gauging attraction, and a new study has found a man's gaze can reflect his underlying sexual motivation. Researcher Ken Guo, a psychologist at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, decided to delve further into the visual nature of attraction. People’s eyes automatically dilate during arousal or when looking at someone they find...

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...

According to a new study, fertility cycles and sexual desire play a large role in relationship satisfaction for women. The study, which was published online in the journal Hormones and Behavior, consisted of 108 heterosexual women who were asked to rate how sexually attractive they found their partners (whom they had been with for an average of two years). Researchers also asked the women to rate how close they...

Who is your “perfect man”? Well, that depends on how old you are. A new report, featured in Match.com's LoveGeist report, suggests a woman’s priorities for a mate simply change as she ages. According to the report, what constitutes the “perfect man” for a woman is going to be a lot different when she’s 22 than when she’s 32, 42, 52 or 62. However, the report makes it clear women continue to maintain high standards...

While it’s been a cultural assumption men and women are attracted to mates that remind them of their opposite-sex parent, a new study (titled Sexual Imprinting on Facial Traits of Opposite-Sex Parents in Humans and published by researcher Urszula Marcinkowska) found men are even more likely to seek out women who look like their mothers than women are likely to find men who look like their fathers. Marcinkowska...

Reader Question: Maybe I'm blind, but a gal I'm interested in seems to be interested in me. I get the light touching, big eyes, etc. When she texts, she will often send smiley faces at the end. The issue is we work for the same company, different departments. She said she will not date a co-worker, not that we are in point of fact. She even said she is very particular about who she lets into her private life and...

Do racial stereotypes play a role in dating and mate selection? A new study published by Adam Galinksky of Columbia Business School indicates racial stereotypes play a very large role in perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Previous studies have explored the links between gender, race and achievement in fields ranging from athletic participation to choice of leadership, yet Galinsky only recently turned his...

New research shows what you find most attractive in a partner might be best reflected in a mirror. A recent study published by France’s Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution gathered 100 male participants and showed them an assortment of photographs of women, asking the men to rate the women on their attractiveness. The men were then shown a selection of four photographs of new women, which included photos of women...

While good looks tend to get all the press, smell may actually play a bigger role in relationships. That’s according to a new study published in the Journal of Biological Psychology. The study focused on individuals who were born without any sense of smell, finding they fared worse in their dating lives than the average individual capable of smell. Research showed an individual with anosmia, the inability to...

Traditionally masculine features, including a sharp jawline, have often been attributed to a woman’s attraction for one man over a more feminine-looking potential mate. Yet a new study suggests a man’s attractiveness has less to do with rugged features and more to do with body fat measures. South African scientist Vinet Coetzee, at the University of Pretoria, took face and body photos of 69 male volunteers....

Who can more accurately spot a loving pair from casual couples — single people or people in relationships? Common sense may state that people in relationships have a better radar for spotting love within others, but a recent study finds the opposite to be true. Recently published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, the findings indicate that single people were considerably more adept at spotting a couple in love...

You’re far more likely to end up married to a person who holds your same political views than someone who votes on the opposite end of the spectrum, one study says. The collaborative study from the Journal of Politics notes that individuals do not consciously choose mates with similar political views to them; rather, people seem to end up in politically compatible relationships unconsciously. The study, which...

Welcome back to the second installment of our article series on the characteristics that can help you become an “attraction magnet” in the gay dating market. If you missed Part 1, you can access it here. So what else personifies sexy? Let’s get back into it! 8. Practicing the fine art of courtship. Whoa! Pull back on the reins and slow things down a bit! One of the most sabotaging behaviors in new dating...

What’s the easiest way to determine a stranger’s sexuality? A new study suggests the secret to learning what turns a person on lies in their eyes. While the scientific community has long speculated an individual’s eye dilation indicates their arousal, the first large-scale experiment testing this hypothesis has only just been performed and released. One of the study’s researchers, Ritch Savin-Williams of Cornell,...

A new study has confirmed what we all know in our guts — when it comes dating, first impressions matter. To verify this long-standing belief in the dating world, Trinity College researchers in Dublin, Ireland, conducted a study looking at the way the brain responds to encountering potential matches. The study was composed of 151 heterosexual college students who were put through a scenario common to anyone who’s...

Since Helen of Troy’s unparalleled beauty launched a thousand ships and brought about the Trojan War, men have been trying to figure out what goes on in the mind of a woman. We are finicky creatures. But once you understand what it is we look for in a mate, your dating life will become much more fulfilling. The following are the top traits women look for in men. Pay attention and the rewards will be bountiful. 1....

Reader Question: I started developing feelings toward one of my close friends. I'm the president of my club in college and he's my vice president. However, I can't help feeling the way I do toward him. I can't sleep, I can't focus, and every time I see him I get mixed feelings. I know I can't like him because of the power differential between us. He is a bit younger and I know it may be awkward if I say anything....

It may sound counter intuitive, but using a coupon on a first date may actually increase the chances of a second outing, according to the findings of a recent study conducted by research group Harris Interactive. Their research indicates most people respond favorably to the idea of using a coupon on a date, regardless of whether they’re the one using the coupon or if their date pulls out the discounted...

I am always amused when a man asks me what women think is sexy because it indicates that he doesn’t think he is sexy and plans to change his clothes/hairstyle/religion/car to recreate his own image to fit into a mold. Gentlemen, when it comes to sex appeal, there are no absolutes. Just as every man has his own idea of what kind of woman he finds alluring, women have their own individual preferences about the kind...

You’ve been around long enough now to understand the absolute power of the feminine mystique. Men love everything about women and will do anything to get close to them. You could probably get a man just by snapping your fingers and waving him over, but it’s probably best to start with the time-honored way of getting his attention: flirting. Flirting can be visual, verbal, physical, subliminal or even aromatic....

You don’t have to be rich or famous to date a woman who is totally out of your league. We’ve all seen the short, chubby bald guy with the trophy girlfriend and wondered what he was doing right. But we also noticed he had a cheerful smile and was comfortable with himself. They say you can’t date more than two notches above your own ranking. If you’re a “6,” you might be able to date a girl who’s an “8” but you...

In 1971, a marketing campaign for Loving Care’s “Nice & Easy” hair color hit the airwaves with words for women that were worth millions of dollars in product sales: “You’re not getting older; you’re getting better.” The campaign was so successful and memorable not because it told older women what they wanted to hear, but because it struck a chord of truth that had been ignored for far too long. Until then,...