Women may not fall for a smarmy sweet talker, but they may, in fact, find themselves falling for a man with an impressive vocabulary, according to a recent study taken at the University of Nottingham.
According to Matthew Hutson of Psychology Today, “Psychologists at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. asked students to imagine a romantic encounter with an attractive member of the opposite sex or a casual conversation with someone older. Then the students wrote an essay on an unrelated topic. The romance-primed men unknowingly used more unusual words in their essays. Female subjects didn’t show the same effect, but a previous study found that women do show creativity spikes when primed with thoughts of attracting a long-term partner.”
The scientists believe that intelligence indicates superior genetics, and that men may be showing off their vocabulary in an attempt to impress potential mates. This would appear to be the opposite of that dude at the bar who strolls in wearing his free spring break beer t-shirt and talks about his dick for 20 minutes and what a stud he is before beginning to cry during a singalong of “Piano Man” and passing out in his basket of wings.
However, men should steer clear of becoming Thesaurus Boy, that pretentious paramour who attempts to insert unnecessary words into regular conversation as a means to impress the ladies; women may be able to detect deception and will be turned off. And your chances of scoring with the ladies, as Mike Tyson would say, will “fade into Bolivian.”
Language: Bed Bards [Psychology Today]
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