Gender: Flowers Make Women More Receptive to Romance

If you want to increase the odds a woman will find you attractive, all you have to do is buy her a beautiful bouquet.

Guéguen conducted two experiments to test the romantic power of flowers. The first featured 46 female college students. One at a time, each was led into a small room featuring a sofa, two arm chairs and a coffee table holding a laptop computer.

They were instructed to watch a five-minute video in which a young man discusses his eating habits. Participants were instructed to observe the target carefully and form an impression of him, the researcher notes.

Two minutes after viewing the video, each woman was led into a second room, where she shared their views on the man in the video. Specifically, she rated extent to which she found him physically and sexually attractive, and the likelihood she would go out with him.

For half the women, the room with the laptop was decorated with three vases of flowers — a mix of 10 roses, 14 marigolds and 15 daisies. For the other half, no flowers were present in the room.

Among those who had shared the room with the flowers (which were not explicitly mentioned or pointed out), the target was perceived to be more physically attractive and sexually attractive, Guéguen writes. The participants also expressed higher willingness to date the target.

For more, see Flowers Make Women More Receptive to Romance by Tom Jacobs, April 7, 2011 at Miller-McCune.