What's Your Frequency?

by Allen Thompson

A study at the University of Oregon divided men into two groups based upon how often they dated (high-frequency daters and low-frequency daters). They brought these guys in and had them interact with women. Both the men and the women then filled out a number of evaluation forms.

The women, surprisingly, rated both groups of men about the same, being equally attracted to both the high-frequency daters and the low-frequency daters. However, the low-frequency dating men underestimated how much the women liked them, and the high-frequency dating men overestimated how much they were liked by the women.

In other words, the high-frequency daters went on a lot of dates, not because they were, in some way, better than the low-frequency daters, but because their confidence enabled them to actually approach, talk to, and ask out the women that they liked.