A woman's assessment of the attractiveness of a man is influenced by how other women view him, according to researchers. Credit: iStockphoto
PARIS: Just having a few women smile at a man in public is enough to make other women consider him much more desirable, according to researchers.
British psychologists, led by Benedict Jones of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, have discovered that, when sizing up a man, a woman takes her cues from other women around him. The more females she sees smiling at a man, the likelier she is to consider the guy a good catch.
The ‘copycat reflex’ is the result of Darwinian pressures, according to experts on evolution. If a female faces lots of potential mates but has difficulties in choosing the best one, or if to do so would cost too much time or energy, she can help herself by taking a steer from how rival females behave.
The research team, which reports their results tomorrow in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, recruited 28 female volunteers averaging about 24 years old. The volunteers looked at photographs of four young men wearing neutral expressions and looking directly at the camera. The men were shown in pairs, and the women were asked to choose the more attractive man, and assign him a score on an eight-point scale.
The same faces were then shown individually to the volunteers, each male face flanked by a female face shown in profile. The female either looked neutrally at the man or smiled at him. The volunteers then took another look at the paired faces, and were asked to give another attractiveness rating.
Where the female faces wore neutral expressions, many of the volunteers revised sharply downward their initial grading of the man, by more than 10 per cent on average. But they sharply revised upwards their grading – finding the man more attractive by an average of at least 15 per cent – if the woman looking at him had a smile on her face.
The reverse was true for men: 28 young male volunteers took part in the same experiment, and their rating of the likeability of the male faces plummeted if the man in the picture was being smiled at by a woman. But if the woman had a neutral look, the likeability rating improved.
The findings tell us a lot about how sexual competition affects our views, the study said. ‘Desired’ men are more attractive to women but pose more of a threat to other males.
Among females in other species, “mate choice copying” has already been spotted among guppies, Japanese quail and zebra finches, but this is the first time the phenomenon has been confirmed among humans.
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That sucks
girls are stupid
it works for me.
they totally have cooties.
It’s called pre-selection and you can see it at any “meat-market” club on any given night. When you start dancing and one girl gives you attention, suddenly LOTS of girls start giving you attention. The same applies if you go to a club with a girl or a group of girls. It proves you have been pre-selected and makes all the girls wonder what is so special about YOU. Ever notice how easy it is to find girls when you already have a girlfriend. Pre-Selection. Girls can smell it like a fart.
Okay yes, it is true. But same goes for guys too!!! I don’t care what gender, if you have a mate (girl or boy) you are always being harassed by the other sex. Once you are single, and can actually do something about any advance, no one wants you.
An inappropriate comment has been removed from this post — Editor
but the study (as reported by the article) leaves out a whole lot…
like are cues ONLY physically visual… the smile? or is there quite likely unseen human communication… call it by whatever name you will: telepathy? empathy? energetic exchange? auric inter-play?
using made-up photos doesn’t eliminate any of this because play-acted situations do portray all those levels, too…. when successfully done, it is called “superb acting”
and also… why (in real life) does one woman smile at a man, in the first place? she must see/feel something, right? that other women can read, too … and when a man is smiled at by a woman, that often does something to him, causing him, perhaps to “radiate” all the more … a cascade effect
my (by now ancient) personal experience was that when I was sleeping with a relatively large number of women in grad school, it was definitively true that the girls were flocking
I’ve often wondered why that was true….
naturally this study reveals an easy strategy for a male “on the hunt”. Simply employ the best looking woman friend you know to pretend to “be interested” at one of those meat markets some previous respondant cited.
According to the principles, other woman ought to flock…
finally: does this not work in reverse, too… the woman being paid attention to by a handsome male will gather a following
CHARISMA is?
Men look at their buddy’s girlfriend and say: ‘I want a girl like her.’
Women look at their friend’s boyfriend and say: ‘I want him!’
I really like the part of this article stressing that men and women are opposites.
When women see a man that other women want they think, “I want what they’ve got, and I’m hotter so I can take him from her.” This is because most men think with their penis and would likely go for the more attractive girl. This is also why so many women fall in love with “players” or “assholes” who seem to be unable to get tied down.
But when a guy sees a woman with a bunch of dudes, he thinks I had better stay away – “She probably has a boyfriend. I don’t want to get my ass kicked.” Therefore, once again his penis is thinking for him saying – “If I get kicked in the balls for talking to her – this would be totally not worth it.”
These concepts aren’t new. It just shows how long it takes for scientists to “discover” what many pick up artists (Mystery/Style/etc.), have already been teaching for while.
All the girls want my boyfriend, but my boyfriend only wants me!!!
Last year, I found a highly compatible honey on the Internet. Wherever we go, our infectuous happiness restores women’s faith in sexusl love and turns them on.
Of course, being a guy, it has occured to me that turning them on might make them easy to seduce, but I have what I want.
Of course, being a potentially jealous female, my honey has wondered whether they’re responding to us or to me. She concluded it’s us on the grounds that I’ve been Platonic friends with many of these same women for years.
So we humans can choose to see competitiveness, jealosy, and copycat reflexes, or we can observe and affirm opportunities for genuine inspiration and learning in others. Perhaps the scientists who did the research can do a more in-depth study clarifying this distinction in the future.
Sure, many of the things that we take as “common sense” may seem stupid to study, but just because it’s common knowledge, it doesn’t mean its true. Science takes an idea and proves or disproves it.
These pickup artists are scientists. They use the scientific method to prove or disprove their methods before they teach them. Everything of what they teach has been tested in “the field” numerous times with repeated results.
It’s fascinating to me how hard-wired ‘attraction’ seems to be, particularly because we’re all so prone to romanticize the whole thing. One of the numbers noted in the article struck me as odd, however. To women looking at males who were being smiled at by a woman the desirability of the male was reported as ‘an average of at least 15 percent higher.’
An average of at least? Which is it? An average or a baseline? Eomen rated men an average of 15% more desirable in this condition, or every single woman rated the men at least 15% more desirable? There’s a huge difference statistically.
keep the awesome alive,
ephraim
Dis study is absolutely on point…women do dat based on wat perception they get from other women…which is absolutely DUMB!
Its alot of things women do dat cause DUMB results but then they wanna cry and pout when they engage in a failed relationship.
Yeah dudes do stupid shit but usually its because women do stupid shit or create a cause and efect.
It all comes down to the principles of proportion if you see a 6ft tall person next to a 7ft person, you would percieve the 6ft to be small. And if you then the saw the same 6ft person next to a 5ft person it would follow the same idea. Just like bright light out shining and “dimming” less bright light.
Jez.
This is not “research”, it’s yet another example of conformity to social pressure. I am female and I am often attracted to men that other women think are “nerds”, “geeks” or “losers”.
The reason for this is that I am a non-conformist. I have developed my own criteria for attractiveness based upon the traits which I believe are important (as opposed to what Society tells me ought to be important to me).
What I don’t understand is why whenever “researchers” test the behavior of “a random sample of females” they act surprised when the majority of them exhibit conformity to social norms.
I’d like to avoid chooseing such guy. He is just a player for me.
And then women have the nerve to cry and moan about guys being “players?” Don’t they realize that their behavior condones this? If a woman sees a man alone she completely ignores him, seeing him as a potential predator. If that same gentleman had another woman on his arm suddenly that same woman would notice him and he becomes worth something. Isn’t it interesting that women command attention from men REGARDLESS of company (and in actuality men PREFER women who aren’t flanked by other guys). This makes me really wonder—are women REALLY into MEN, or OTHER WOMEN (if OTHER WOMEN are needed to validate a man)???
– A member of The Disposable Sex
what u said about the women looking at a man surrounded by ladies is correct, however, when a man see’s a girl surrounded by guys, it’s not so much that he’s afraid of some boyfriend, but rather that she is probably one of those girls that flirt with everyone and date multiple guys at the same time. i dont need a girl like that around me.
that’s why he’s still yur boyfriend ms. smarty pants. if nobody wanted yur boyfriend u’d move on too.
u CHOOSE to be played
I agree with what you said it appears to me the women compete for the attention of all men, if the men are already coupled in a relationship or married. It has been my experience that women dress for other women not necessarilly the men. When pursing another women’s man. A woman really does not have an interest in that man truly. She just wants to prove to the other woman that she is more desireable to her man than she is. The man just happens to be there as a tool for this competition. It is very primal and disturbing it makes the relationship between a man and a woman very illusionary. The competion and jealousy that arises is pretty sick and unhealthy behavior. We are a young species.
I ran with a player and I learned a lot from him about exploiting this behavior but, I could not, as it is not in my nature. The women who pursued him were in denial, in that he had it written all over his forehead. When things went bad and they always did I was baffled when these women were hurt. The player was in fact miserable in playing this game as it all became a series of nothingness and illusionary to him. We are still a young species.
I have had sex without love or caring it is empty. Just gymnastic.
When finding that special someone the first thing a guy should do is meet the parents it will give you great insight into the girl/womans relationship with men. If she did not have a father or death or divorce impacted her relationship with the very first man in her life her father. look for trouble ahead, It’s not a hard and fast rule but it is helpfull. I know because I lived it, and I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger. We are still a young species.
She’s possibly already pregnant, thus useless. I’d like to see one simple experiment :
Attractive female researchers take guys out on simillar exciting dates, trying to make the guys fall in love, but only some guys know the girls are dating other guys. I’d bet the guys who don’t know about the others fall in love.
Infact girls without boyfriends are very cautious since they’re looking for a boyfriend, not just sex. It means she needs a good guy who won’t think she is sleeping around. Otoh girls with boyfriends want to shag an alpha male behind his back (and get him to believe the kid is his).
Also how many time have you lost male friends when you got a boyfriend? You do know all those male friends were “nice guy advances”, right? And they mostly go away if they can’t get you.
Just read about evolutionary psychology. It’ll explain men better than any woman’s magazine
Photos are god *because* they are so controlled. And everyone’s seen it work in real life. I always ask female friends to visit the bar with me when I’m single. I get laid way way way more often if I show up with a woman.
No it’s the opposite for women. Men don’t want competition. Men don’t want a woman who might be pregnant. etc. A man’s genes fear being cuckold, but a woman’s genes don’t.
No attractive woman will stay with a man unless she thinks others want him.
It’s more hard wired than you think. I’ve three very non-conformist female friends who’ve said the same as you. In each case, I was briefly in love & tried, but they did not want me. But I did have sex with each one, after I had another girl. In two cases, she’d even set me up with her friend, and then had sex with me. And these three friends really are nice highly educated girls. Trust me, it’s biological.
I’ve no doubt you are avoiding the real players, that’s good. But don’t think your not biased by other womens reactions. Maybe you just don’t respect the reactions of some bimbo in a bar? But your nice friend’s opinion of a guy counts lots.
Your theory held up until you made the comment about genes – women (genes and all) don’t want to be cuckolded any more than a man does. The difference between the sexes with regard to being the cuckold is that women can focus on the larger issue (the relationship) beyond the sexual aspect of cheating. But men being mostly ego can’t do that, instead they focus on the other man (his package, sexual skills, etc.)
Genetics have nothing to do with it, it’s emotional maturity or in the case of most men – the lack of.
Wow – someone actually gets it. Too bad you’re one man among many who don’t and can’t be cloned! Relationships don’t last be cause they’re not real – people cheat because no one really knows how to love or commit any more.
They’re having too much fun with the gymnastics.
Whoever you are I hope you keep that mindset and pass it on to your children one day.
This is exactly right.
Women are in competition with each other over what they consider the most valuable ‘mates’.
For centuries these urges were controlled by authority, religion, etc.. for many different, and very good reasons. Polygamy being one. The fate of ones offspring being another.
With the sexual revolution and their obvious economic gains in the workplace women today are free of many of the economic, societal and biological repercussions of engaging in such indiscriminate sexual behavior/mate poaching.
Of course it’s convenient to blame men for the problem. That’s called ‘plausable deniability’ as a part of her ASD or anti-slut defense. Specifically that a woman will never place herself in a position to be ‘responsible’ for the act of sex taking place. That’s why they so often say ‘it just happened’.
Well of course it didn’t just happen. And it’s supposed to involve two consenting adults. But then if the woman consented, then that would render her desire to backwards rationalize that it wasn’t really what she wanted, problematic. And only by backward rationalizing the fact that ‘it wasn’t what she really wanted’ can she possibly relieve her guilt of feeling like a slut.
So perhaps she was violated.
This of course has broader, and often troubling legal implications.
Presumably a man is less likely to suffer negative consequences of approaching women who hadn’t been warmly received by a smile, than the reverse.
Men that are smiled at by women are more likely to be fun and safe to engage with, regardless of mating aspirations. I suspect if a 5 yo girl was admitted to that study, she’d make similar decisions on likeability as the sexually-active women. It’s hard to control for that factor when drawing conclusions on female-female competition from this study. The study would also be more informative if results were collected for all combinations. Would likeability improve if the subjects, smilers and viewers were all the same sex? Or if women viewed women were smiled at by men? Potential friend, mate, or competitor?
Such interesting comments, varied ideas. The suppositions made of the opposite sex (especially the cynical ones!) tell me more about the originator of the comment than the comment itself. Perhaps these scenarios are true in come cases, but human behaviour is so broad it’s best not to generalise – for example, none of them are true to my personal experience, except having nice-guy friends back off when a love-interest was found. I found the comment that women don’t take responsibility for sex interesting, I can see it happening. But a lot of men use the “it just happened”, too – and are generally less likely to suffer the consequences of sex. Use of “slut” as a slur is still largely confined to women. It benefits each gender to try to control the sexuality of the other.
“The ‘copycat reflex’ is the result of Darwinian pressures, according to experts on evolution.”
That is a bit of a jump and a supposition.
Men don’t fear cuckolding more because of a lack of “emotional maturity”. Men realize that the end result of cuckolding is a precious relationship with a child being built around deceit. Can you imagine loving and caring for a child, the feeling of pride when he or she achieves, spending hours of wonder associating the Childs ability to relatives. Only to find out in 33 years the child is not yours. The child, deceived, leaves the fake father and naturally seeks out his root and the fake father is left alone, with no children and no wife to die isolated with no one who cares for him due to the deceit of his by now Ex-Wife.
Again you are an Idiot
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