Relationships

What Guys Need To Do To Get Our Attention Is So Simple, But They Still Never Do It

by Candice Jalili

One of my favorite things about my boyfriend, ever since we first met, was that he actually — get this — LISTENED TO THE THINGS I SAID. AND THEN, HE EVEN REMEMBERED THEM. 

This may not sound like a big deal, but any woman who's ever been hit on by any dude who forgot her name halfway through the conversation can tell you why a guy who listens is so insanely attractive.

It seems simple, but a good listener just has a natural appeal to women.

And a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne explains why we find this seemingly NBD quality so attractive.

In the study — which involved moths — they found that, in the mating process, female moths release just a teeny tiny bit of sex pheromones, so they would only attract the male moths with antennae large enough to detect them.

In other words, the females were only trying to attract mates who were physically capable of actually observing and picking up on their cues — listening to them.

The study's co-author, Professor Mark Elgar, explained these findings in his own words: "Our data suggest that by releasing smaller amounts of pheromone, the female increases the likelihood of attracting males with longer antennae.”

He went on to explain that having larger antennae made male moths "higher quality" partners, as they possess traits that a female would hope to pass down to her offspring.

In human terms, this scenario would play out like so: You go to a bar and whisper, "I'm horny," so that you'd only attract the "higher quality" guy who was paying close enough attention to your signals to actually hear what you were saying.

Yes, this study was only conducted on moths, so it's not confirmed that humans would react exactly the same way. But it DOES actually confirm a larger Darwinian theory that women are more into men who are capable of understanding their needs and wants.

"Darwin also proposed that sexual selection can favour males who are better at detecting and responding to signals from females, including chemical signals like pheromones," Elgar said.

He continued, "So males with sensory structures that can better detect female signals may have the edge in finding them in order to mate and pass on their genes.”

All right, ladies, now, it's time to read this entire article out loud to your BF and see how well he listened to it.

Citations: Science Says Women Like Men Who Listen (Medical Daily), Darwin was right: Females prefer sex with good listeners (EurekAlert)