It is often joked that a guy holding a guitar gets more attention from the opposite sex, but some (rather dubious) science has now appeared to confirm a thousand pop culture clichés.
Two recent university studies have looked into the truth behind the cliché and it appears there may be something in it after all. Although the methodology might not be the most rigorous, the results are fairly positive for guys who're obsessed with their guitars.
The Israeli study took a different tact, the researchers set up a Facebook profile with a photo of a man on it and sent friend requests to 100 single women at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities. Half of the time the guy in the photo was strumming a guitar like a pro and the rest of the time it was just a standard photo with no guitar. Only 1 percent responded positively to the guitar-less profile, however 28 percent responded positively to the photo with a guitar.
Two recent university studies have looked into the truth behind the cliché and it appears there may be something in it after all. Although the methodology might not be the most rigorous, the results are fairly positive for guys who're obsessed with their guitars.
A French study that was published last year suggests women are more attracted to a guy who caries a guitar around with him, and that supports a study published in Israel two years ago.
The French study looked at:
"The assumption that music plays a role in sexual selection. Three hundred young women were solicited in the street for their phone number by a young male confederate who held either a guitar case or a sports bag in his hands or had no bag at all. Results showed that holding a guitar case was associated with greater compliance to the request, thus suggesting that musical practice is associated with sexual selection."
Researchers enlisted a particularly brave 20-year-old actor and asked him to introduce himself to 300 young women under 25. He would then say "I think you're really pretty," and ask for their phone numbers. During the testing he was carrying a sports bag for one third of the time, nothing for another third and a guitar case for the other third. The results are pretty positive for us guitar geeks as 31 percent of the women gave him their number when he was carrying the guitar, 14 percent did when he carried nothing, and unfortunately for the jocks out there, only 9 percent did when he was carrying the gym bag.
The French study looked at:
"The assumption that music plays a role in sexual selection. Three hundred young women were solicited in the street for their phone number by a young male confederate who held either a guitar case or a sports bag in his hands or had no bag at all. Results showed that holding a guitar case was associated with greater compliance to the request, thus suggesting that musical practice is associated with sexual selection."
Researchers enlisted a particularly brave 20-year-old actor and asked him to introduce himself to 300 young women under 25. He would then say "I think you're really pretty," and ask for their phone numbers. During the testing he was carrying a sports bag for one third of the time, nothing for another third and a guitar case for the other third. The results are pretty positive for us guitar geeks as 31 percent of the women gave him their number when he was carrying the guitar, 14 percent did when he carried nothing, and unfortunately for the jocks out there, only 9 percent did when he was carrying the gym bag.
The Israeli study took a different tact, the researchers set up a Facebook profile with a photo of a man on it and sent friend requests to 100 single women at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities. Half of the time the guy in the photo was strumming a guitar like a pro and the rest of the time it was just a standard photo with no guitar. Only 1 percent responded positively to the guitar-less profile, however 28 percent responded positively to the photo with a guitar.
And if these studies are to believed, you don't actually need to play the guitar. Just carry it around and hope for the best!
Although neither methodology appears particularly scientific or rigorous, hopefully it offers some unlucky in love guitar guys out there encouragement. Unfortunately there was no study carried out on the effect single women with guitars on single guys, which would have been an interesting study.
What do you think?
I would like to see how a saxophone would score
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