Consider a 2005 analysis of speed dating data, by psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Men tended to choose to have further contact with every other woman they met. Women only wanted to meet again with one in three men.
Not only are women picky, they’re also, apparently, coy:
Related evidence comes from a speed dating study in the January Psychological Science. Psychologist Peter Todd of Indiana University in Bloomington and his coworkers found that observers of speed dating encounters are moderately good at picking out who later expresses romantic interest in whom, with women being harder to read than men.
What’s more, they almost invariably are forced to settle. Because really, they want Brad Pitt.
Women become especially choosy given a large pool of prospects, picking only a few men ranked highly by nearly all female daters, Todd’s group reports in January in Animal Behaviour.
The scientist who conducted the study would, however, contest that view.
Speed daters play the mating game in a peculiarly human way, Todd proposes. Given only a handful of choices, women get less picky because they can evaluate many characteristics of each potential date. But faced with 20 or 30 alternatives, it’s possible to track only a few obvious clues for each man, such as facial appearance and body type, narrowing the woman’s pool of choices.
THE DATING GO ROUND — Science News
* Scientists’ standards of proof are significantly different than journalists’ standards of proof.
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grow some wiggaz