What Pick-Up Lines Work Best (on Men)?
Male pick-up lines tend to be of two kinds: bad and worse. "You're hot, can I have your number?" "Can you recommend a good drink?" "Can I get a picture of you so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?” These are just a few of the gems in the male pick-up line repertoire. But what about females? Do women use pick-up lines as well? If so, do they work, and are they any more clever than what the male species has to offer? New research forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences explored these questions in the context of an online experiment. Specifically, a team of psychologists led by Maryanne Fisher of Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada tested which of three forms of female pick-up lines—direct, flippant, and innocuous—were most effective in piquing the interest of a potential male suitor. Interestingly, they found that directness was the most s...