Cape Town – An awesome personality is more important than physical appearance – that is the bottom line of Heidi Böttcher’s science project titled “What really attracts boys to girls”.
The 14-year-old was honoured as the best in her category and won a silver medal at the Taiwan International Science Fair (ISF) last month – becoming the first South African to return triumphant from this event.
“It was amazing. I could not believe it. I was just a kid coming to Taiwan with a school science project,” said Böttcher.
It all started with her Grade 8 science project in March last year. “I noticed my surroundings. The girls all tried to get the boys’ attention,” the Fish Hoek High School pupil said.
She developed two questionnaires, one for boys and one for girls, and conducted interviews with 399 young people aged 12 to 20. Those questioned had to determine given indicators of attraction and repulsion. With the gathered data, Böttcher created a ranking of qualities that attract boys to girls.
The young scientist said: “Confidence, humour, a nice body, politeness and intelligence are the five most attractive qualities in a girl (that) boys would consider dating. These characteristics are constantly the top five.
“Although their order changes across the age groups, confidence and humour always trump a nice body.”
Thanks to the survey, Böttcher was able to prove her hypothesis correct regarding the significant difference between what female youngsters suspect and what teenage boys actually find attractive in girls.
“Sixty-three percent of the girls believe looks are more important to boys than personality. This is clearly not true. Seventy-two percent of boys value a great personality more highly than good looks.”
Her school selected her project and sent her to the Eskom Expo in Cape Town, where she won gold and qualified for the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists ISF (International Science Fair) in Johannesburg. Handpicked by the Expo’s international selection committee in October, Böttcher and Leia French went overseas to represent South Africa.
The social science project aroused intense interest at the ISF in Taiwan. Youngsters from all over the world quizzed the Capetonian and studied her research. The Taiwan ISF hosted 500 outstanding international pupils and gave them the opportunity not only to interact in the field of science, but also to socialise.
With her prize money, Böttcher bought her first laptop, an investment for further research. For her next school science project, the 14-year-old is considering a complementary survey about what really attracts girls to boys.
After finishing school, Böttcher intends to study psychiatry since “really good psychiatrists are needed, because the world relies on people”.
Cape Times