Wooing mantra: run yourself down 'to win over a woman'

Wooing mantra: run yourself down ‘to win over a woman’

London: What’s the most effective way of winning a woman’s heart? Well, it is by running yourself down, says a new study.
   Researchers have carried out the two-year study which revealed that taking the mickey out of one’s self works better than just clever jokes which might be seen as boastful and put women off.
   According to lead researcher Gil Greengross, “Many studies show that a sense of humour is sexually attractive, especially to women.
   “But we’ve found that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive of all. It is a risky form of humour because it can draw attention to one’s real faults thereby diminishing the self-deprecator’s status in the eyes of others.
   “But based on the idea that verbal humour evolved to function as a fitness indicator, self-deprecating humour can be an especially reliable indicator, not only of general intelligence and verbal creativity, but also moral virtues such as humility.”
   In fact, in the study into the role of humour in seduction, the researchers have found that the type of humour used by Hugh Grant in the film ‘Notting Hill’ — in which he attempts to charm Julia Roberts with the poor contents of his fridge — works the best, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.
   However, the researchers have warned that the technique should not be attempted by those who are already unpopular as it could make “low-status individuals” appear “more pathetic” than they did before.
   The study is to be published in the upcoming edition of the ‘Journal of Evolutionary Psychology’.
AGENCIES