David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
So a professor walks into a bar... (Pay attention. This is research.)
Thursday, November 10, 2005
by Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen
Psychologists from a couple of British universities have gone trolling for babes, and analysed 40 pickup lines in terms of likelihood of success. Or as they call it when applying for grants, they analysed "verbal signals of genetic quality."
Believe it or not, they claim a man?s best chance of impressing women is by saying something like: "It?s hot today isn?t it? It?s the best weather when you?re training for a marathon."
At least, that got the most favourable response from 205 women tested by the combined brainpower of Edinburgh AND Central Lancashire Universities.
Leaves you wondering what the worst pickup line was, right? It was this: "You?re the star that completes the constellation of my existence."
Followed closely by bragging about your money: "I was wondering if you had space in your bag for my Mercedes keys."
Okay, back to the allegedly good ones. The trick, says psychologist Christopher Bale (no relation to the Batman actor) is to make yourself look witty, bright, and other good things. Good taste in music helps, so say this, he suggests:
"The Moonlight Sonata or, to give it its true name, Sonata quasi una fantasia. A fittingly beautiful piece for a beautiful lady."
Or: "Your eyes are blue like the ocean, and baby, I?m lost at sea."
A couple of intrepid Brit reporters (and yes, I am plagiarizing from the Independent) went bar-hopping with these lines. Total failure everywhere. One reporter pulled out the blue-eyes-like-the-ocean line on some young woman and she told him: "You?re an idiot. And you?re colour-blind. They?re brown."
Universities often brag about their latest research on websites. Strangely, neither Edinburgh nor Central Lancashire says a peep about this one. Hey, at least it's not my tax money.
Dark Matter bets Bale is single, and likely to stay that way.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
by Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen
Psychologists from a couple of British universities have gone trolling for babes, and analysed 40 pickup lines in terms of likelihood of success. Or as they call it when applying for grants, they analysed "verbal signals of genetic quality."
Believe it or not, they claim a man?s best chance of impressing women is by saying something like: "It?s hot today isn?t it? It?s the best weather when you?re training for a marathon."
At least, that got the most favourable response from 205 women tested by the combined brainpower of Edinburgh AND Central Lancashire Universities.
Leaves you wondering what the worst pickup line was, right? It was this: "You?re the star that completes the constellation of my existence."
Followed closely by bragging about your money: "I was wondering if you had space in your bag for my Mercedes keys."
Okay, back to the allegedly good ones. The trick, says psychologist Christopher Bale (no relation to the Batman actor) is to make yourself look witty, bright, and other good things. Good taste in music helps, so say this, he suggests:
"The Moonlight Sonata or, to give it its true name, Sonata quasi una fantasia. A fittingly beautiful piece for a beautiful lady."
Or: "Your eyes are blue like the ocean, and baby, I?m lost at sea."
A couple of intrepid Brit reporters (and yes, I am plagiarizing from the Independent) went bar-hopping with these lines. Total failure everywhere. One reporter pulled out the blue-eyes-like-the-ocean line on some young woman and she told him: "You?re an idiot. And you?re colour-blind. They?re brown."
Universities often brag about their latest research on websites. Strangely, neither Edinburgh nor Central Lancashire says a peep about this one. Hey, at least it's not my tax money.
Dark Matter bets Bale is single, and likely to stay that way.
mg:
