Clothes Make the Man
Have you happen to have watched the three part “Secrets of the
Sexes” on Public Broadcasting. Catch them if you can—a
tremendous amount of helpful information about love, dating, and
sexual attraction.
Here’s one tidbit: Researchers set up a speed dating event with
40 men and women. They tested various strategies and elements,
trying to predict who would be attracted to whom. Almost all
their theories were blown out of the water. The only factor they
could find that determined who was the most attractive to the
other sex was height in men (the three tallest men got by far the
most date offers), and the ratio of waist to hip size in women
(the smaller the waist in comparison to hips is correlated to
fertility, which men seem to unconsciouly know).
Before the speed dating, the researchers tried to improve the
luck of a couple of the participants. One guy, who by his own
description was short, skinny, and not good looking, was put in a
store front window and women passing by were asked to guess his
profession, how much money he made, and whether they would date
him.
Not only was he short, skinny, and not good looking, he was made
more unattractive by his clothing: layered and badly colored T
shirts, jeans, and very odd shoes. The women guessed he worked
in a shop, made less than 30,000 pounds (the study was in
London), and sometimes rated him below 0 in attractiveness. Most
said they would not date him.
Then the researchers set him up with a stylist who dressed him in
a dark jacket and slacks, white dress shirt (open collar, no
tie), nice shoes and designer sunglasses. Then they put him back
in the store window.
This time, the women guessed that he was a professional or
business owner (in fact, he was a university lecturer), upped his
income to 40,000+, his attractiveness level by several points,
and were much more likely to agree to a date.
BTW, this same guy in the speed dating event (where he wore his
new outfit) did quite well. He indicated interest in ALL the
women, and two indicated enough interest back that he got dates.
He was very pleased and visably excited.
From Your Romance Coach, Kathryn Lord
