A study in Psychology
of Music found that women are more likely to give their digits to a man toting
a guitar case over a man lugging around a gym bag. The researchers took a
good-looking man and watched as he approached 300 different women, all of whom
were complete strangers. He did this in three different ways: once with nothing
in hand, once carrying a gym bag and once holding a guitar case.
After introducing
himself and hitting on them, he asked each woman for her number. While 14
percent of women complied when he was empty-handed, a measly nine percent gave
their number to him when he was carrying a gym bag. When he brought a guitar
case along, on the other hand (pun intended), over 30 percent of the women were
willing to share their digits with him.
Why did the women
prefer the guitar player over the gym goer? It could be because women relate
musical prowess with good genes and intelligence, but it also could just be
because musicians are traditionally the cool guys.
According to Nicolas
Guéguen, author of the study and researcher at the University of South Brittany
in France, “music induces a positive effect, and this positive effect primes
receptivity to a courtship request.” In other words, people like music and music
makes people happy, so they’re more likely to give in to romantic advances.
Further research
published in Letter on Evolutionary Behavioral Science confirms these findings.
In this study, researchers sent Facebook friend requests out to 100 women, all of
whom were single, along with the message, “Hey, what’s up? I like your photo.”
In only some cases, the profile picture of the sender had a guitar. When he
wasn’t holding a guitar, only 10 percent of women replied to him, but when he
was shown with a guitar, 28 percent of women got back to him.
There’s no denying it:
Guys who string the chords have an easier time pulling heartstrings, too. If
you have the extra cash and some spare time, might we suggest taking some
lessons?