The Weekly Hump: Single Women Are More Attracted to Attached Guys
Every hump day we’ll bring you a new fornication fact. This week find out why if you’re a dude and in a relationship, women are more likely to be interested in you.
A 2009 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that single women are more likely to want to pursue a relationship with a man currently in a relationship than with a guy who is single.
Social psychologists Dr. Melissa Burkley and Jessica Parker of Oklahoma State University conducted a study on the psychological phenomenon known as “mate poaching.” The male and female participants in the study were required to describe their “ideal romantic partner” and were then computer matched with a “like-minded student.” Half the group was told their match was single, while the rest were told their match was in a relationship. The participants were then made to answer a series of questions on whether they’d be interested in having a romantic relationship with their match.
The results show that “when researchers described the man as single, 59 percent of single women were interested in pursuing him. However, when they described the exact same man as being in a committed relationship, 90 percent of the single women were interested.” Men did not demonstrate this preference, and neither did women who were already taken.
According to Dr. Burkley, “This finding indicates that single women are considerably more interested in pursuing a man who is less available to them. This may be because a man who is attached has already shown his ability to commit and, in a sense, has been pre-screened by another woman.”
So guys, the answer to your dating woes is to pretend you currently have a girlfriend. Single women seem to like what they think they cannot have.
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