Starflower
Single Women Seek… Attached Men
It’s a truism among single women that all the best men are taken (or gay, but that’s a different matter). However, a new study on the factors that determine attraction indicates that it’s not so much the best men that are taken, but rather that the fact that men are taken makes single women thing they must be the best.
Confused? Well, the evidence the study produced is less than confusing:
184 heterosexual students, half of whom were single, participated in a study on sexual attraction and told the volunteers that a computer program would match them with an ideal partner. All the women in the study were shown the same photograph of a made-up „Mr. Right“ and all men were shown the same „Miss Perfect“. Now comes the interesting part – half of the men and half of the women were told that the person in the picture was single, the others heard their pictured partner was already in a relationship. That piece of information made a huge difference to the attractivity rating of the single women. Only 59 per cent were interested in the single man, but 90 per cent thought he was a catch when they heard he had a girlfriend.
Of course one would hope that most single women refrain from actually pursuing a man who is already taken, but the fact that „another woman’s man“ would be so attractive speaks volumes about how we decide on the dateability of eligible males. If they have a girlfriend, they’re alright, but if not there must be something wrong with them. Needless to say, all single women would – without exception – balk at the thought of being labelled „undateable“ because they’re single, so maybe they should rethink their attitude towards „all the best men“ – maybe some of them aren’t taken…
