Attractive men don’t have to try as hard, according to Carin Perilloux, a visiting professor at Williams College. She found that the more attractive a woman is, the better men think their chances are.
It sounds odd, but what it basically boils down to is average men have to hype themselves up to the point that they believe they can have any woman they want, and since attractive women tend to ooze more confidence, these men often mistake their poise for flirtation or romantic interest. Less attractive men also have to hit on a lot more women to actually score, so that’s where all that “psssst,” “come here,” “hey beautiful” street harassment comes from.
In her study of 200 undergads, Perilloux asked everyone to rate their own attractiveness and then they held three-minute one-on-one conversations with five members of the opposite sex. The more attractive the woman was to the guy, the more likely he was to overestimate her interest in him. The less attractive men (who believed they were better looking than the women rated them) were more likely to think beautiful women were interested in them, while more attractive guys tended to have a more realistic assessment.
Women, on the other hand, totally underestimated men’s sexual interest.
“For men, the best piece of advice is to be more cautious if you’re interested in someone,” Perilloux says. “For women, save the flirting for guys you actually are interested in sleeping with. Men seem to take any flirtatious signal and run with it.”
At least we’ve finally got an answer to this age-old question. Have you always wondered why lame guys are always the first to try to holla? What do you usually do when that happens to you?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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