Study: Women Like Men Who Are Unsure About Them

Welp, science just confirmed something that we women have known for years: The more unclear a man’s feelings about us are, the more we like him.

The study, published this month in Psychological Science, interviewed 47 women at the University of Virginia and used Facebook as part of the bait. Each lady was told that male students had viewed her profile along with 15 or more other women’s profiles, and then, in a sort of cruel twist, researchers showed the women four male students’ Facebook profiles that were, in reality, fake. Several of the women were told those four men liked them best, and the researchers told some of the women the guys rated them average. The rest were told the guys could either be the men who liked them best or just average. Here’s what happened:

As other research has found, women who believed the men liked them a lot were more attracted to the men than women who thought the men liked them only an average amount. However, the women who found the men most attractive were the ones who weren’t sure whether those men were into them or not.

And thus (sort of, not really) explains why women chase after men who aren’t gushy about their feelings…or lack thereof. What’s science’s advice about this phenomenon?

“When people first meet, it may be that popular dating advice is correct: Keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest,” [the authors write].

So…play games. Great.