Why Playing Hard To Get Is Effective With Women Online

Do you want to raise a woman's interest in you online?  Playing hard to get is effective with women according to a study.  That's right when men back off and play it "cool," women become more interested in men.

A study published in Psychological Science found a woman will be more attracted to you when she's uncertain about how much you like her.  What this means if you want a woman to like you, never let on how much you're interested in her.  You want to establish you're "hard to get" but still very interested in her.

47 female undergraduates at the University of Virginia participated in the study.  The women believed the experiment they were participating in was to see if Facebook could work as a dating site.

The female participants allowed the experiment to take a screenshot of their "about me" and "likes" section of their Facebook profile.  The women were told male students would view their profile at other universities before the lab session.

The women were then shown four men's Facebook profiles that they thought to be real but were in fact fake.  The women believed each of the four men had rated their Facebook and were told the men who viewed their profile either:

1. Liked them a lot.
2. Liked them only an average amount.
3. Liked them either a lot or an average amount (uncertain condition).

The women who believed the men liked them a lot were more attracted to the men than women who thought the men liked them only an average amount.  It's not surprising because people generally like others who like them back.

However, women found the men most attractive when they weren't sure whether those men were into them or not.  This "uncertainty" about a men's interest level made the women think about those guys the most which increased their attraction to them.

Other studies have found similar things.  When people meet someone they know little about, they infer positive thoughts or information to "fill in the gaps" which results in a greater attraction towards those other people.

In another study, Less Is More: The Lure of Ambiguity, or Why Familiarity Breeds Contempt, participants, who had yet to meet their dates, told how much they liked their dating partner before the date and were asked how much they liked them once they met after the date.  The study found although the participants knew more about their partner after the date, they liked them less; which shows uncertainty increased their attraction before the date.

Playing hard to get is effective because of the uncertainty it creates with women.  Studies show uncertainty causes women to think about you which in turn increases your attractiveness.

You can boost your attractiveness online by playing it "cool."  Once you've started a conversation with a woman, don't email her first thing in the morning asking her how her night was or wishing her a great day.  There's also no need to immediately respond to her messages.

You don't want to be aloof and inconsiderate by any means.  What you want to do is back off somewhat and take your time responding to messages.  Do this until you meet.  Once you meet for a first date, there's no need to continue this approach otherwise the woman may assume you're not interested and move on to someone else.