10 surprising psychological reasons someone might fall in love with you
#7. If they don’t know whether you like them
A little mystery might help you out on the dating front. 2011 research suggests that people like you more when they don’t know if you like them.
For the study, some women saw photos of men who had seen their Facebook profiles and really liked them. Other women saw photos of men who had seen their Facebook profiles and rated them average.
A third group of women saw photos of men who had seen their Facebook profiles — but the researchers didn’t reveal whether the men had liked them or not. (In reality, the researchers had made up all this information about who liked who.)
Sure enough, women liked the men most when it was unclear whether the men had liked their profiles.
#6. If you look similar enough to their current or last partner
We may all have a “type” — but women are more likely to adhere to it than men are.
In one 2011 study, researchers found that both men and women rated opposite-sex faces more attractive when they closely resembled their current or most recent partners. Men, however, were less attracted to faces that looked similar to their current partner than women were.
#5. If you use a lot of hand gestures
Literally — fill up the physical space around you with hand gestures and an expansive posture. In one 2016 study, researchers observed men and women in speed-dating sessions. Results showed that people were twice as likely to say that they wanted to see their partners again when those partners moved their hands and arms, compared to when their partners sat still.
For the same study, researchers set up profiles for men and women on a GPS-based dating app, showing them in both expansive and contractive postures. Sure enough, people were selected more often when they were pictured in expansive postures.