The Science of Seduction: Fooling the other's brain
Every romance has its framework, every story its setting. When it comes to seduction, the environment plays a crucial role. It can significantly influence the degree of attraction towards a stranger.
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?
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.
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First, lets start with the basics:
Fooling the other's brain
Every romance has its framework, every story its setting. When it comes to seduction, the environment plays a crucial role. It can significantly influence the degree of attraction towards a stranger. Have you ever wondered, for example, why boys like to take girls out on a motorcycle, or see a thriller at the cinema?
These old methods, which are still effective, work on a principle called misattribution. It is possible to give variations of them once you understand the principle. Misattribution is a psychological mechanism identified as early as 1974 by psychologists Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. These psychologists had conducted an experiment in which they asked men aged 18 to 35 to cross alone either a bridge made of wooden planks suspended over a canyon or a stable and reassuring bridge.
A young woman or a young man, under the pretext of a study on artistic expression, approached the man on the other side and asked him to answer a diversified questionnaire, which included a few questions on sexuality. At the end, the person conducting the survey offered the man more information about the study and gave him his telephone number so he could call him. Scientists would then measure how many of these people contacted the interviewer again. The results showed that people who crossed the plank suspension bridge were more likely to respond to sexual questions. In addition, the interviewer was called almost five times more when the survey was conducted after the suspension bridge crossing .
Thus, crossing the suspension bridge has a strong emotional connotation - fear or excitement due to danger - which alters physiological parameters and provokes reactions (accelerated heart rate, muscle contractions, visceral reactions, sweating, release of adrenaline), which can be found in states of sexual or amorous excitement. The brain would consider the person of the opposite sex waiting at the exit of the bridge to be the cause of these physiological disturbances. This is why this confounding mechanism has been termed "misattribution".
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Love on the roller coaster
But suspension bridges over rivers are rather rare in cities. So how can you create thrills that can be interpreted as a sign of a budding love? One solution is to take your partner to an amusement park or fair. Psychologists Cindy Meston and Penny Frolich from the University of Texas at Austin have tested the effectiveness of this method.
At a carnival, they solicited men and women in mixed couples who were about to enter or leave a sensational ride. They were asked to assess the physical attractiveness of a person of the opposite sex in a photograph and their desire to meet that person. They were also asked whether the person accompanying them was in a friendly or romantic relationship.
The psychologists found that the attractiveness of the person in the photograph increased when the subjects in the study emerged from the fairground attraction. Likewise, the desire to meet the person increased when they experienced strong sensations. This was observed both in women judging men and vice versa, but not in people in a couple situation. Perhaps it is necessary to be emotionally free for the sensations produced by the fairground attraction to act. Thus, experiencing a strong emotion stimulates the desire to meet a person of the opposite sex.
Thanks for reading this issue ! See you Thursday for another content about seduction and Monday for another issue of The Science of Seduction.