The struggle to attract the opposite sex is something that humanity has struggled with since the beginning. Finding others to carry on your genes, and continue humanity, is the core instinctual purpose of most human beings to this day. Countless tomes and other guides have been written on how to attract the opposite sex, but much, or most of it, is based in theory or feeling. However, scientists have also spent a lot of time over the years studying attraction, and how it affects us on a cognitive level. These studies have led them to understand many ways that you can use scientifically proven methods to make yourself more attractive to the opposite sex.
10. Own A Dog Or A Cat — Taking Dogs For Walks Especially Helps
Some people may be surprised, as it seems like more of a woman’s thing to be nurturing (due to the whole “motherhood” thing), but owning a pet actually can make a big difference in attraction. Now, men tend to be much less interested in the pet owning and caring habits of the person they are attracted to, but it still makes a difference. Women, on the other hand, place far more value on that kind of interaction, and thus owning a pet can make a really big difference in attracting women. Women are more likely to be attracted to men who own pets, and take good care of them.
Scientists believe this is because pet ownership and the observation of a good pet owner can prove that the man has a nurturing and loving side that will help him care for children and be a good provider. Men, on the other hand, do find it more attractive in women for similar reasons, but don’t place as much importance on it as they already expect women to be naturally nurturing to begin with. Dogs are especially helpful for this, as you can walk a dog, but cannot really walk a cat to show them off. However, scientists also caution that it isn’t just having a pet, but how you take care of it, and others. Owning a pet helps, but a woman will also pay close attention to how you treat it, and also how you treat your friends. For someone who is considering you as a romantic partner, how you treat your friends and pets gives them an insight into how you would treat your children as well as how you would treat your significant other.
9. The Color Red Evokes Passion In People And Can Help Contribute To Attraction
Color psychology is one of the most wonky fields in the world, but one thing that most researchers seem to agree on is that the color blue, and its various shades, make people calmer on the whole, and that shades of red tend to have the opposite effect — they inflame people’s passions and get them excited. As you might imagine, many people have wondered over the years if the color red could have some effect on attraction, and many studies have been done to that effect.
And surprisingly, while most color psychology has not been able to be verified, studies have shown again and again that people tend to be subconsciously attracted more to people wearing the color red. Among women, the red seemed to excite their passions, causing them to score men on a red background as more attractive. On the other hand, it seemed that male test subjects didn’t necessarily find the women directly more attractive, but considered women wearing red to be more sexually receptive. For this reason, they were not only more likely to consider them objects of attraction, but also to tip them better and be nicer to them in general.
8. Smell Can Be A Huge Signifier, But Not Necessarily The Smell Of Your Cologne
Most people will tell you that this is really obvious — smell makes a huge difference in attraction. However, most people think that means doing your best to smell nice all the time, including but not limited to taking regular showers and dousing yourself in cologne (or perfume) and deodorant. The industry built around selling people artificial “smell-nice” products is worth billions, but most people don’t realize that when it comes to attraction, your natural smell can make a much bigger difference.
Studies have shown that men can be shown t-shirts from women who weren’t ovulating, and others from those who were, and can tell the difference entirely by smell alone, even a good week later. This means a perfume could be covering up a smell that could cause a sexual attraction from a male. Interestingly, women also have some strange interactions when it comes to smell and attraction. When on the pill, women are less worried about the physical attractiveness of their partner, and more worried about it when they go off the pill. Women can also tend to smell men who are different from them genetically, likely an evolutionary byproduct to support genetic diversity, but this changes when women are on the pill. Women who are on the pill tend to not be as attracted to genetic diversity, which could be because the pill is fooling them into thinking they are already pregnant.
7. The Pitch Of Your Voice Can Make A Huge Difference, For Both Genders
Sound of voice can also play a major part in attraction, and most people are already pretty aware of this. In general, most would likely agree with the cliche that women tend to find deeper voices more attractive, as it is a signifier of masculinity, and men would find women’s voices more attractive when higher pitched, for similar reasons. While it is true that the pitch of someone’s voice plays a role, there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. To begin with, it can partly depend on the region. If you are in an area where white collar work is a lot more important, women might not necessarily find outward masculinity quite as attractive.
Also, while men and women do often tend to find that a voice with an opposite pitch is attractive, they will change how they speak in order to be attractive to others. Both men and women have been shown to change the pitch of their voice to fit the opposite genders regional preferences for voice pitch, but couples behave very differently still. Researchers found it surprising that when someone is already in a relationship and talking to their partner, they tend to try to modulate their voice to be closer to the pitch of their significant other. Men would often try to lower their pitch, and women raise their pitch, when speaking to the person they are currently with.
6. Blue Eyes Are Likely Considered Attractive Because They Made People Stand Out
Blue eyes are one of those things that are almost universally accepted as being attractive, and very few people would tell you that anything but blue is the most attractive eye color (Van Morrison being one of the exceptions). This is also fascinating because less than 20% of the population of the world have blue eyes, making such an attractive feature also one of the rarest. While it has always been widely accepted that they are one of the most attractive features, evolutionary scientists have long studied, and wondered, why we evolved blue eyes at all.
See, all eyes are essentially really blue eyes, but most eyes have an amount of pigment that makes them appear darker to some degree. Evolutionary scientists have multiple theories as to why this evolution occurred, and all of them could have some partial truth. One of the more popular theories is that they helped people see better in certain situations, but another popular theory has to do with attraction. Researchers believe that during the paleolithic era, blue eyes would have helped women stand out and better find a mate to carry on their genes. This striking ability to stand out from the crowd may have been what caused early man, ages ago, to find blue eyes more attractive than any other eye color possible.
5. People With Symmetrical Faces Are Considered More Attractive In General
Now, as we have talked about in other entries, looks are not the only important thing when it comes to attraction. However, it certainly does play a role, and the evolutionary reasons why certain faces are more attractive than others is actually fairly well understood. The fact of the matter is that across all different regions of the globe, and all different animal species, scientists have discovered that in general, symmetrical faces are considered way more attractive than asymmetrical faces.
Scientists believe this is due to evolution giving us a sign that someone with a more symmetrical face has better genes, and is thus a more viable mate to pass on our genes with. However, there is even more to it than just simple attraction. For some reason, when the man a woman is dating has symmetrical features, she is more likely to actually orgasm. On top of that, women who have symmetrical breasts have been shown to be more fertile than women who don’t. Now, some people today have moved to plastic surgery to fix symmetry issues so they can be more attractive to the opposite sex. Unfortunately, this also means that if they did have bad genes, their plastic surgery may hide that fact from their partner — plastic surgery only affects you cosmetically, it won’t remove genetic flaws that you could pass on to your children.
4. Intelligence Can Be Far Greater A Signifier Of Attraction Than Many People Realize
This is another one that may seem a little obvious at first. After all, most people will claim that they are at least partly attracted to intelligence. Some people don’t want a partner who is too much smarter than them, but most people also can’t stand the idea of a partner who is significantly less intelligent than they are. However, while this is a fairly common aspect of attraction, for some people, it is far more than just another signifier to take into account. There is a growing movement of people who claim a label called “sapiosexual.”
These people claim that what really turns them on is intelligence, and that they dislike porn because the talking is all pointless small talk, and there isn’t any intellectual foreplay to stimulate them. People who claim to be sapiosexual will say that they cannot feel proper attraction unless they already understand the person as intelligent, and that talking about interesting things, or shared knowledge, is the only thing to truly turn them on. These people say that in their experience, even a very physically attractive person holds little sway for them unless they can first find proof that the person is significantly intelligent, and likes to talk about fascinating things and be knowledgeable.
3. Preference Of Masculine Or Feminine Faces Is Based On A Lot Of Different Factors
What attracts women, or men, can vary depending on the region, the cultural preferences, and what kinds of things are especially important in your part of the world. In a study back in 2014, many different cultures were studied for whether they preferred masculine or feminine faces in men. The researchers reasoned that women who lived in cultures that were less developed, or had higher pathogen counts, would be more attracted to stereotypically masculine faces; however, this was not always the case. They did find that in some cases the women were more likely to go for the masculine face, but mostly only when they were looking for a short-term relationship.
When women were going for a long-term relationship, they seemed far less interested in the features of the male looking masculine, or were more okay with markedly feminine characteristics. Researchers also found that in some cases, the women still preferred masculine faces for long-term relationships, if they truly believed they were desirable enough that the man would be very unlikely to cheat on them. According to evolutionary theorists, women are attracted to masculine faces in a lot of short-term situations because of the short-term benefits, but that overly masculine men sometimes don’t make the best long-term partners, so women who wanted a long-term relationship were more likely to be attracted to men with softer features.
2. For Some People, A Meaningful Emotional Connection Is The Only Thing To Turn Them On
Chemistry is something that most people consider to be super important when it comes to attraction, and especially important when it comes to sustaining a long-term relationship. After all, if you cannot get along with the person, or find them interesting to talk to at the very least, you probably aren’t going to be able to build a lasting relationship. However, for most people, there’s at least some attraction to a person before they start getting to know them even more and trying to learn who they are as a person, when it comes to emotional traits and personality.
When it comes to demisexuals, though, they see things quite a bit differently. Like the sapiosexuals we discussed earlier, demisexuals are attracted almost solely to a strong, emotional connection. For a demisexual, a beautiful person is beautiful, but they won’t have that spark of attraction until they can truly connect with someone on an emotional level. This can make it difficult when talking to people who are more casually dating, because a demisexual is looking to test for strong connections almost immediately, whereas a casual dater may not want to be too open at first. If you want to attract a person who is demisexual, opening up early on and showing them the chemistry you share is a great way to form a lasting emotional bond, and show them why they should be attracted to you as well.
1. People Tend To Often Be Attracted To People They Think They Cannot Have
This is a cliche, but it is scientifically proven that people really are more attracted to the forbidden fruit — that person they just cannot have. Perhaps they are out of your league, or perhaps they are simply even in a relationship currently, or they just didn’t happen to be interested in you the first time you tried to get their attention. Whatever the reason, scientists have found that when someone is shown pictures of someone who has rejected them in the past, they have responses similar to someone dealing with addiction, and craving.
To put it simply, while researchers are not sure yet why, research subjects were definitely exhibiting the behaviors of an addict who is off their stuff of choice and trying to get more, when confronted with reminders of past rejection — this could be an evolutionary byproduct designed to convince people to try even harder to get a mate when they fail the first time. This means that playing hard to get can actually help, but keep in mind this is only going to help just enough to get your foot in the door. Once your foot is in the door you are no longer unobtainable, so you will need to dazzle them with your personality.