The Difference Between Men and Women

What’s the most effective pickup line on a college campus? Psychologists Elaine Hatfield and Russ Clark had actors (independently judged to be attractive) approach students of the opposite sex with a variety of lines and recorded their success rates. The lines were:

1) I’ve been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you go out with me tonight?

2) I’ve been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you come over to my apartment tonight?

3) I’ve been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you sleep with me tonight?

The success rates, as reported separately in two of my favorite popular science books, Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works and David Barash and Judith Lipton’s Myth of Monogamy:

Will you go out
with me tonight?
Will you come over to
my apartment tonight?
Will you go to bed
with me tonight?
Male Respondents 50% 69% 75%
Female Respondents 50% 6% 0%

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