London: Did you ever face a situation where a friend request by you was taken as a signal of sexual interest by your colleague and vice versa? This classic communication gap has now been settled.
A fascinating study reveals that while women report that men often misinterpret their signals of friendliness as sexual interest, for men, women often misinterpret their signals of sexual interest as friendliness.
"The results are no surprise if seen from an evolutionary perspective," said researcher Mons Bendixen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
To reach this conclusion, the team analysed 308 participants between ages 18 and 30. Fifty-nine percent of participants were women.
The results showed that both men and women find that their social signals are misinterpreted by the opposite sex.
Women answered that they had acted friendly towards a man and had this misinterpreted as sexual interest about 3.5 times over the past year on average.
The men also reported having been misinterpreted by the opposite sex in this way but far less often.
According to the researchers, if seen through the lens of evolutionary psychology, we can better understand why men often wrongly assume that women who smile and laugh during conversation may want to sleep with them.
"A man's reproductive fitness, meaning the amount offspring he produces, is dependent on how many women he is able to make pregnant. But that's not how it works for women," Bendixen explained.
A woman can have sex with multiple men over a short period of time without producing any more children.
So for men, it is a low-risk, potentially high-reward situation for men to have sex with women whenever the opportunity presents itself.
On the other hand, the cost is potentially great for a woman if she thinks that a man is more sexually interested than she is.
A woman risks pregnancy, birth, nursing and raising the child, as well as lost opportunities to reproduce with others.
"Across thousands of generations, women's psychology has evolved to set the bar higher, which means they need much clearer signals than men before they consider sex," Bendixen explained.
The results also showed that men rarely misinterpret women who actually do signal sexual interest.
The study that appeared in the journal Evolutionary Psychology concluded that this is independent of whether or not the person is in a steady relationship or not.
Comments
| Quick linksNews
National
International
Regional
Politics
Education & Career
Business
Science & Technology
Health
Views & Analysis
The Funny Side
© 2012 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.
While the opposition Congress party asked the government to apologies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government defended itself, saying the picture of the original preamble in the advertisement was as it came into force Jan 26, 1950, two months after being adopted by the Constituent Assembly ........ More
Also Read: Permanently drop words 'secular', 'socialist' from Constitution: Shiv Sena
He also condemned statements by some BJP leaders who he said were trying to spread misinformation about his comments on union Minister Smriti Irani and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel vis-vis the plight of Jashodaben, estranged wife of Modi. ......... More
Also Read: Modi 'deserted' wife, says Congress leader; BJP fumes
Making it clear yet again what the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Maharashtra has in store for over 10 million Muslims in the state, Higher & Technical Education Minister Vinod Tawde a few days ago hinted that establishing the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) off campus centre is not in the ...... More
It also shows that Joint Statements, even at the highest levels, are worth little more than the paper they are written on, if not followed up by either or both sides, as has been the case with the disarmament provisions of the November 2009 statement........ More
Also Read: US media skeptic about 'breakthrough' in n-deal
Prophet Muhammad PBUH was an introvert, a loner, a shy and quiet man since the beginning. His hurt at this name calling made him return back home and lay down, with his cloak wrapped around him. Prophet Muhammad PBUH was an introvert, a loner, a shy and quiet man since the beginning. His hurt at this name calling made him return back home and lay down, with his cloak .... More
Between the massacre at the premises of Charlie Hebdo and other event that have followed: I became a Muslim, Matic writes on her Faecbook page
With regard to my position towards the caricatures of the Prophet, I will write you the..... More
The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop low-cost machines to print Braille, the tactile writing system for the visually impaired. Tech giant Intel Corp. recently invested in his startup, Braigo Labs. The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop ... More