I know our UK readers love when we cite beauty science articles from papers like The Telegraph and The Daily Mail but here’s one that’s too good to resist: apparently scientists have figured out the exact percentage of skin you should show off to men if you want to get picked up.
From saint to sinner
According to the Telegraph article, researchers at the University of Leeds have calculated the exact proportion of the female body that should be revealed to optimize your chances of attracting a man. But even thought this study was published in the journal Behavior, the methodology seems a bit sketchy to me: four female researchers secretly watched women at a popular night spot and recorded what the women were wearing and how many men approached them to dance. They assigned values to each bared body part with arms being 10 percent, legs 15 percent and the mid riff 50 percent. They found that women who showed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who showed less. Women who showed more than 40 percent attracted fewer men as well. The researchers theorized that showing too much flesh makes men think you might be unfaithful.
The most amazing thing about this research , if we can call it that, is that the results indicate there’s a limit to how much skin men want to see! If being fully covered makes you a prude and showing 40% makes you alluring, and revealing 70% makes you a skank, then full nudity must be the biggest turn-off of all. I wonder how many men would agree with that? (I also wonder if they factored in the effect of alcohol…)
What do you think? Do you calculate your skin-to-clothing ratio when you hit the clubs? Leave a comment and share your strategy with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Oddly, this is what I’ve been telling my fellow women for years. “Give a HINT of cleavage, don’t give them the whole show!” “Leave something to the imagination.” “If you don’t cover up you’re showing no respect for yourself and no one will respect you, especially men.”
And their response. “You’re a PRUDE!” “I’m showing I’m an empowered woman!” “You need to get with it, Jami.”
It’s not like I was telling them to dress like Victorian women, just not wear tight mid-drifts and short shorts or miniskirts with no underwear. But they go crazy on me and start accusing me of trying to hold women back and that I’m “against feminism.” What flashing your breasts for all the world to see has to do with feminism I don’t know. And some of these women were 40 years old or older!
I hope these scientists do this experiment over and over again until they have tons of proof. Then I can wave these findings in these women’s faces and say, “See? I was right! Men like leaving something to the imagination!”
This is some of the WORST scientific method I’ve ever heard. It never ceases to amaze me what journals will publish.
I usually show off cleavage since it is one of my better assets. I would show more leg but normally go out in a pair of dark jeans or black pants.
So I should only show 2 legs and an arm? This is ridiculous. Wouldnt beauty and size have had something to do with this as well?
If they really wanted to do an “experiment” they would get twins, all diff sizes, and dress one 40% covered up, one 70% and then have a panel of people rating whether they’d date them long-term. So then the only variable is the amount of skin shown, not how many drunk men think they can pull the hottie at the bar.
Jami – don’t think this experiment would be able to show you proof that covering up attracts men. I think theres a lot more variables involved than just showing vs not showing boob.
It makes total sense. Although this article doesn’t strike me as overly scientific, I still agree with the 40% bare skin. Balance is everything, show a little leg but not too much boobs, show a little boobs, but not too much legs. It’s all about balance!
this is retarded. they’ve basically shown that women dressing in a socially accepted manner (for nightclubs) will attract more men. what did we really learn from this study? telling women what to wear = more ad revenue.
If they wanted to do a real study, they would judge the quality of the men attracted by the “skin showers” as opposed to the “skin teasers” as well as the circumstances. Example: Men are more likely to be enamored with a woman when in a professional situation who shows “enough, but not too much” skin based on the danger level of it being at work, or if the woman holds a higher position than them. Attraction is very complicated, this study does not take into account enough of the variables involved. Also, more intelligent men know that a woman who shows “alot of cleavage” is either insecure enough to be used, or unaware of the impression given by her “showiness”, or both in other words: easy to fool. Men, to a point, are predators (I stress ‘TO A POINT’) when seeking a sex partner, weaker or less intelligent prey falls first, most often) and must be observed better by possible mates unless that mate means to ‘beat them at their own game’, in which case the used becomes the user. This makes my head hurt, I’m out! lol
omg if it’s from leed uni, then I’m ashamed D= I’m from leeds uni and I’ve not heard about this before. Obviously they would have included weight, height, appearance, colour rather than what they wear right?
I mean like caucasian, asian, hespanic etc omg…. =_=;