Austin, TX, USA. A new study hypothesizes that evolution might favor men who incorrectly read a woman's sexual cues.

But males can be very optimistic when it comes to reading a females's interest. How can he know for sure whether she does or she doesn't? Sexual cues are ambiguous and confounding. Most of us — and especially men — often read them wrong.


"There are tons of studies showing that men think women are interested when they're not," says Williams College psychologist Carin Perilloux, who conducted the research with Judith A. Easton and David M. Buss of the University of Texas at Austin. "Ours is the first to systematically examine individual differences." Their findings appear in the journal Psychological Science.

The Research Setup

The subjects were in their late teens and early twenties (96 male and 103 female) who went through a "speed-meeting" exercise — talking for three minutes to each of five potential opposite-sex mates.

Before the conversations, participants rated themselves on their own attractiveness and were assessed for the level of their desire for a short-term sexual encounter.

After each meeting, the participant rated the prospective partner on several measures, including physical attractiveness and sexual interest in the participant.

The model used had the advantage of testing the participants in multiple interactions.Men looking for a quick hookup were more likely to overestimate the women's desire for them. Men who thought they were hot also thought the women were hot for them — but men who were actually attractive, by the women's ratings, did not make this mistake. The more attractive the woman was to the man, the more likely he was to overestimate her interest. And women tended to underestimate men's desire.

A hopeless mess? Evolutionarily speaking, maybe not, say the psychologists. Over millennia, these errors may in fact have enhanced men's reproductive success. "There are two ways you can make an error as a man," says Perilloux.

• Either you think, Oh, wow, that woman's really interested in me — and it turns out she's not. There is some cost to that, such as embarrassment or a blow to your reputation.
  
  
• The other error: She's interested, and he totally misses out. He misses out on a mating opportunity. That is a huge cost in terms of reproductive success.

The researchers theorize that the kind of guy who went for it, even at the risk of being rebuffed, scored more often — and passed on his overperceiving tendency to his genetic heirs.

The casual sex seekers "face slightly different adaptive problems," says Perilloux. "They are limited mainly by the number of consenting sex partners — so overestimation is even more important." Only the actually attractive men probably had no need for misperception.

The research contains some messages for daters of both sexes, says Perilloux:

• Women: know the risks and be as communicative and clear as possible.
  
  
• Men: Know that the more attracted you are, the more likely you are to be wrong about her interest.

Again, that may not be as bad as it sounds, Perilloux says — "if warning them will prevent heartache later on."

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment