The Space Needle is My Neighbor

EIGHT YEARS AND COUNTING What Have We Learned So Far?
"A mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Sunday, April 23, 2006

# 3 - You're 89, Single and Don't Get The Peanut Joke

Hey, It's all good!

Men Don’t Want Funny Women

It's a trait often requested in lonely hearts ads and scientists have now shown that a good sense of humour is important for women, but not men, in choosing a romantic partner. A woman is even willing to overlook other shortcomings in a man if he can make her laugh, North American researchers say in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

"Our results suggest that humour can positively affect desirability as a relationship partner but this effect is most likely to occur when men use humour and are evaluated by women," says Dr Eric Bressler, an assistant professor at Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

Bressler and Canadian researcher Dr Sigal Balshine, an assistant professor at McMaster University in Ontario, demonstrated in an experiment that a good sense of humour, or GSOH as it appears in personal ads, does make a difference.

They showed groups of women pictures of two equally attractive men and presented autobiographical statements that were either funny or serious. After reversing the experiment and showing groups of men photographs of two women, they asked both sexes to select who they would choose as a romantic partner. The humorous people were seen as more socially adept but less trustworthy, honest and intelligent. Men did not select the funny person but women did.

"Women chose funny men as relationship partners despite often rating them as less honest and intelligent," the researchers say. Funny men were preferred even if their humour was unsophisticated, the researchers add.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My wife of 33 yrs was funny and intelligent. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. It just kept getting better and better until the cancer took her away. She was even funny close to the end, as she faced death with dignity and grace.

6:56 PM  
Blogger FancyPants said...

I have no idea who this gentleman is, but it's obvious that he loved his wife very much. As I approach 600 hits on this site, I have no idea how or why people get here, but I'm glad that they do.

10:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just browse now and then. Most blogs are a waste of time. Some I manage to read a little, the intelligent ones more than others. Teenagers who don't know how to spell annoy me (Watch, I'll probably make a mistake of my own now) but I look for a while anyway. I started my own blog as a way to let friends know how I was doing. It isn't profound, but an outlet anyway.

3:37 PM  
Blogger FancyPants said...

Good for you! I get a lot of satisfaction from working on mine.
Thanks for stopping by.

5:55 PM  

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