Science works in weird and wonderful ways, and chemistry between two people is no different. While you’ve probably already heard of some tried-and-true flirting tips that can get a guy hooked, what about some more offbeat possibilities? What are some less conventional facts about attraction that science has revealed, and how can they help you get a guy?
We’ve compiled a short list of facts you might have never known about attraction. Some of them may seem odd, but you probably never knew that they would help you snag a campus cutie!
1. Wear Red
It’s true that boys don’t always care about our fashion choices, but the one thing they can agree on is their favorite color: red. It’s been repeatedly proven to be an eye-catching color to the guys!
A recent study by the University of Rochester found that women who wear red in their online dating profile photos are more likely to receive messages and dates than those wearing any other color. And another study from the University of Southern Brittany in France found that the women in red tops prompted 21 percent of the total inquiries for dates (compare that to 14-16 percent of the messages received by women who were wearing black, white, blue, yellow or green!). So on your next date, leave your go-to LBD in the closet and slip into a flirty red number instead! The point is to inspire passion and love, and what better color to do that with than a deep, romantic red?
2. Listen to Classical Music (And Maybe Avoid Country)
Don’t hide your CDs if you’re a classical music fan! A study in 1989 by Dolf Zillman and Azra Bhatia showed that men actually found women more attractive when they mentioned that they enjoyed classical music. The opposite effect happened when women mentioned that they loved heavy metal—men viewed them as less attractive. While more research needs to be done to show if today’s new popular music genres have the same effect, there’s no question that music does help get a man hooked.
Something surprising, though, is that both men and women found their dates less attractive if they said they liked country music. We’re sure country music has less of a negative effect if both you and your guy love country, but to be safe, you may want to save the country music confession for later down the road in your relationship.
3. Scare Him
Love and fear may seem like two opposite emotions, but they actually complement each other! To understand why, pretend that you live way back during the hunter-gatherer era when survival would have been your first priority. According to Psychology Today, when humans felt threatened, they went into “survival mode” and looked for ways to stay alive. One way that hunter-gatherers survived was physically and emotionally latching on to others, which led to relationships between men and women. This means that many early emotional and sexual relationships were born out of fear for survival because our ancestors would get anxiety and attraction confused.
So on your next movie night, try watching The Ring and sidle up to your guy. His arm will probably be around you much sooner than you think!
4. Lay off the Perfume
We’re not telling you to stop showering or putting on deodorant when you step out of the gym, but studies suggest that to get the right guy, you don’t need layers upon layers of perfume to make him fall for you. In fact, science says that you should skip all that heavily scented body lotion, since your natural scent will determine if a guy is truly attracted to you!
Why does your natural scent matter? The key lies with more than 100 immune system genes that together are known as MHC. Basically, when you meet a guy, your nose automatically picks up those genes in his natural scent and determines whether or not he’s biologically worth your time. The more dissimilar his MHC structure is to yours, the more attracted you’ll both be to one another. Why does this happen? Your body is wired to make sure that your DNA survives (through reproducing), and one way to do it is to strengthen your potential children’s immune system! Even though you’re most likely not thinking about having kids with someone right now, your body acts as though you may.
If you don’t believe it, talk to all your girl friends about their current boyfriends or exes. They’ll probably mention at some point that burrowing their nose into a T-shirt of his or his hair was one of their favorite things to do, most likely because they loved how he smelled. A lot of evolution and the survival of mankind had to do with scent, and the same thing still happens today.
5. Stock Up On Arugula
You may have heard about how effective oysters are at boosting both men and women’s libidos, but you may want to listen to your parents’ age-old advice and eat your greens. This is especially true when we’re talking about arugula.
Arugula is a green plant from the Mediterranean region with a ton of nutrients. But aside from being super healthy, it’s also super great for our sexual health. In fact, arugula has actually been eaten since the very first century because of its positive impacts on people’s sex lives! While oysters directly turn up your libido, arugula helps it by absorbing a lot of the unhealthy contaminants in our bodies that interfere with sexual arousal. So if you’re not a fan of oysters, maybe make your guy a nice arugula salad one night!
Some other good food options include spinach, broccoli and red grapes. If you used to cringe when eating your fruits and veggies, think again! More and more studies are finding correlations between healthy food items and healthy sex lives. The upside is that there are more than enough recipes to incorporate all of them any time you’d like to cook for you date!
Obviously, we’re not telling you that to get the guy of your dreams, you need to constantly play classical music, not bother too much with hygiene, only watch scary movies and serve him huge portions of arugula. If anything, these are just the more uncommon facts about attraction that are backed in science. Chemistry between two people is still a huge research topic among biologists and psychologists alike so don’t be surprised if even newer, wackier facts emerge in the next few years!