London - A woman is more attracted to a man when she is uncertain about how much he likes her, according to scientists.
A study published in the journal Psychological Science said: “When people first meet, it may be that popular dating advice is correct – keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest.”
The researchers – Erin Whitchurch and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University – analysed 47 female undergraduates.
But, in order to get a natural response, the volunteers didn’t know the nature of the experiment they were taking part in.
They were told scientists were conducting a survey into whether Facebook could work as an online dating website.
Each student was told that male students from two other universities had viewed her profile and those of 15 to 20 other females. Then the women were shown four fictitious men’s Facebook profiles.
Some were told they’d seen the four men who liked them the most, while others were informed these were four men who rated them about average.
A third group was told the men could be either the ones who liked them most or the ones who liked them about average – so those women did not know about the level of the men’s interest in them.
Women who believed the men liked them a lot were more attracted to the men than women who thought the men liked them only an average amount.
However, the women who found the men most attractive were the ones who weren’t sure whether those men were into them or not. – Daily Mail