Is Someone Flirting With You?
Valentine’s Day is a day away, but for those looking to find a date, how can you tell if someone is interested?
Well, fortunately, researchers have worked out the science of flirting, to find out what people do most often if they are attracted in another person.
And the results are in: Starting off being encouraging and complimentary, and ending by being expressive and using open palm gestures, is a sure-fire way that someone is interested.
The research was led by associate professor of communication studies Dr Jeffrey Hall from the University of Kansas.
His team gathered 102 heterosexual men and women – split 50:50 – who had never met before, partnered them up in conversations for 10 to 12 minutes and recorded them on video.
Afterward, subjects reported their level of attraction toward their conversation partners. Then, Dr Hall and his team reviewed the interactions – and what signs of flirtation they had shown.
The results suggest that, in general, in the first three minutes of conversation, people gave their partner a flirtatious glance if they were attracted to them.
They also dished out a few compliments, and liked to be affirmative – being in agreement, passing encouragement or nodding along.
In the next three minutes, people were even more affirmative, and still quite complimentary.
At this point, they also become very keen on ‘palming’ – which means talking while using open palm gestures.
In the next three minutes, though, people no longer relied on compliments.
Throughout the conversation, but particularly at this point, men gazed at the women if they were attracted to them, while women who started sharing personal details were interested.
In the final three minutes of the conversation, the best thing to look for if you’re a man is a woman who opens up, is smiling and laughing along, and is palming.
For women, look for a guy who has lowered his pitch from the early part of the interaction.
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