Which Pickup Lines Work Best?
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''Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?'' Guys, you may think this witty and endearing pickup line is sure to make women just fall head over heels for you. Guess again.
Pickup lines typically have the opposite effect, and a team of psychologists from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland has figured out why: Most women don't like them, reports The Guardian. What the researchers did find is that some pickup lines might work depending on the woman's personality.
By assembling 40 common pickup lines culled from books, films and Web sites, the team asked 266 women and 115 men to rate each of them on how a woman would most likely react upon hearing them.
They found that the pickup lines could be grouped into four categories, depending on the impression the man was trying to give:
1. Cultured: "It's at moments like these when I am reminded of Lord Byron's poetry."
2. Meaningless compliment: "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"
3. Sexual reference: "I may not be Fred Flintstone, but I bet I can make your bed rock."
4. Humorous: "Hi! How do you like me so far?"
They found that women rated the pickup lines based on their own personalities. For example, extraverted women liked humorous pickup lines, while tough-minded women found "nice guy" pickup lines a turnoff.
"The interesting difference appeared when we compared the sexes," Peter Caryl, a psychologist on the study, told The Guardian. "Despite being deeply unpopular with women, men are unreasonably optimistic about how well their sexually explicit lines will go down," he said.
Caryl advises men to make a quick assessment of a woman's personality and then choose a pickup line that fits her type. And when men do let loose with a line, women tend to pigeonhole them into one of four personality types:
-- Friendly and considerate nice guy
-- Industrious and enterprising provider
-- Confident and strong leader
-- Fickle and conceited bad mate
"I can't imagine anyone being turned on by this 'bad mate' kind of guy, but some women seem to be less put off than others. If you look like George Clooney, you may be able to get away with a whole range of things," Caryl told The Guardian.
The takeaway: Men consistently think that a sexually explicit pickup line will win a woman's heart; in fact, the only lines that really work are those that suggest the man is a nice guy or fun to be with -- and even these won't work on all women.
The study findings were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
