The Science of Seduction: The chameleon's strategy
It's so nice to hear a compliment that is positively judged as flattering. The work of psychologist Naomie Grant and her colleagues at the University of Mount Royal in Alberta, Canada, has established that a flatterer complimenting a young woman for her attire is judged more positively immediately afterwards, than if he has merely made a few banalities.
Among the most effective seduction strategies is imitation. Imitation is quite simple and always produces interesting effects. In an experiment, psychologists observed this in one of their studies.
They asked young women between the ages of 24 and 30, who were familiar with speed dating situations in bars, to imitate the behavior and words of some of the men they met at these meetings (see box on page 26). Depending on the experimental conditions, the young women repeated only the gestures, only the words, or both. At the end of the session, the men were asked to give the names of the three young women with whom they had interacted during the session and with whom they felt they had had good contact. They were also asked to name the young woman they were most attracted to. The results revealed that the young women were found to be more attractive when they imitated the young man, and that this attraction, correlated with the "amount" of imitation, was stronger when the woman imitated both words and gestures.
Imitation not only pleases you, it can also reveal that you are pleasing... This is what research by psychologists Johan Karremans and Thijs Verwijmeren from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands suggests. They have observed that men tend to spontaneously imitate young women who attract them, especially when they are not in a relationship. Women do the same.
This finding is consistent with some observations made by Timothy Perper of Rutgers University in New Jersey. He found, by observing the formation of couples in singles bars, that the non-verbal behaviors (gestures, postures, facial expressions) of men and women tend to synchronize as the interaction is prolonged and seems to go well. Scientists observed arm and hand movements, stroking the chin, touching an object, lowering the head, smiling: all these behaviors seemed to occur in synchrony. The degree of mimicry in the protagonists predicted the outcome of the interaction. If you see the other person repeating your gestures or words, it probably means that he (or she) is attracted, or even that he (or she) is trying to seduce you!
Inevitably, the moment comes when the bodies come closer together. This is the crucial moment, which can decide everything. Certain circumstances are conducive to this. In an experiment french psychologists set up in Rennes, they tested the influence of light physical contact when inviting you to a slow dance in a discotheque. When making the request, the accomplice in their experiment touched or did not touch the girl's arm. The results showed that while 45 per cent of the girls accepted the invitation without touching, 73 per cent accepted the invitation with light contact.
This is a series of four issues about the basic of psychological findings about the science behind seduction; each issue will be posted on Monday.
Countless guides, coaches and fortune-tellers claim to hold — and deliver — the recipe for seduction. And what do scientists say about it? Are they interested in the question? Without claiming that seduction is a science, psychologists show that if the unexpected reigns supreme, there are a few ways to optimize one's chances, starting by asking the right questions: where, how and with whose help?
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