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What are good pick-up lines?
Chat-up lines, and other openings used to initiate a relationship with a woman, can be viewed as male displays. How well does their effectiveness accord with predictions from evolutionary psychology? 205 undergraduates (142 female, 63 male) rated 40 vignettes; in each vignette, a man approached a woman and the raters judged whether she would continue the conversation. Openings involving jokes, empty compliments and sexual references received poor ratings. Those revealing, e.g., helpfulness, generosity, athleticism, ‘culture’ and wealth, were highly rated. Although the length of the vignette—confounded here with item content—affected the rating, differences remained after the effects of length were eliminated. The success of openings which demonstrated culture was predicted from Miller’s (2000) ‘mating mind’ hypothesis; the success of others could be predicted from patterns of parental investment.
Here is the paper, and further discussion, including an audio recording of the author. Here are some examples of the pick-up lines used. My personal view is that demeanor and dress matter more than what you say or more than looks for that matter. I also suspect that respondents are trying to look good in the eyes of the surveyors, and that "non-cultured" (my polite term) pick-up lines work only with personal delivery and in direct life context, not on paper. So all you nerds out there, don't waste your time talking about the Steinway.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 14, 2006 at 01:36 PM in Education | Permalink
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Comments
Small talk.
Reveal something deeply personal and not appropriate to tell a stranger.
If she is too shocked to turn her back on you, say:
"I'm trying an experiment tonight. I want fall in love, have a woman fall in love with me, and walk away. All in one night.
Posted by: aaron at Feb 14, 2006 2:32:18 PM
"What" is significantly less important than "whether": even bad pickup lines sometimes work (you can even play the bad as "intentionally bad"), but they all work better than not attempting.
Posted by: Robert Saunders at Feb 14, 2006 4:09:45 PM
something funny, interesting. something that lets you transition into a story that displays that you are a high-status alpha male. IF she is a very attractive woman (0.5 or 10), something playfully insulting.
Posted by: yoyo at Feb 14, 2006 4:40:39 PM
This could also be a great topic for the resident advice columnist sometime. Pickups lines of demonstrated economic soundness - now there's a market opportunity.
Posted by: HC at Feb 14, 2006 10:06:40 PM
"I love your shoes!" Best chat up line ever... At first they think you
are gay and thus, no threat. Then they realise that you are straight
and have great taste. You're in.
Posted by: bob mologna at Feb 14, 2006 11:23:52 PM
when concerns getting sex the best approach is
the law of large numbers. Does not matter
what you say. What matter is that you try a lot,
stubbornly a lot. If it is not the worst cheap talk in the world
it will eventualy work.
Posted by: Felipe dobin at Feb 15, 2006 1:29:03 PM
Paradox of Choice : Interesting Fact :
"Can I buy you a drink" works better than "Can I buy you a drink or do you want the money?"
Posted by: Michael Stastny at Feb 15, 2006 5:40:39 PM
But is dress inefficient signaling? I mean a lot of women spend a rediculous percentage of their lives on makeup, hair, dress, etc. So are the muslims on to something? Or do muslim women distinguish themselves in other (inefficient) ways?
Posted by: will mcbride at Feb 16, 2006 5:50:14 PM
"I like your tits, wanna fuck?"
Works always, believe me!
Just try it, you won't believe it.
Posted by: Big Man at Feb 24, 2006 2:25:59 PM
I just say, i've got a 15" inch cock, wanna fuck
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Posted by: maren ceja at Jan 4, 2007 5:28:24 PM
I'm pretty sure that most women react poorly to pick up lines, but you can try this one for fun: Do you eat Lucky Charms? Because you look magically delicious.
I guess opening with a pick up line is ok, if its pulled off as something for fun, and then quickly followed up with a good conversation.
Posted by: Dave at Feb 18, 2007 3:43:28 PM
Here are some more pick up lines to check out.
Posted by: Dave at Feb 18, 2007 4:47:57 PM
Wow, really cool article. I write about the same subject, but this was pretty faschinating! :)
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