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Sex

A Study Found That Guys Really Don't Care About a Woman's Sense of Humor

Guys are so caught up in nervously spitting out jokes that they forget to actually stop and laugh at the zingers ladies are throwing at them.

New research published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology suggests that while women consider guys more attractive when they're funny, men couldn't really give a shit about their female partners' jokes.

Here's how the study worked: First, 51 pairs of single, heterosexual undergraduates were set up on "blind dates." The pairs were asked to start a conversation using a series of prompts, and then rank their dating interest in the other person after ten minutes.

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Afterward, the researchers reviewed a video tape of the "dates" and coded each of the humor interactions, cataloguing attempts at humor during the conversation, laughter in response to humorous attempts, and times when both people laughed simultaneously.

Although men made only slightly more attempts at being funny, the women laughed way more often in response to jokes. And the more women laughed, the more their interest in the other person went up. That wasn't true for men who laughed at women's jokes—they didn't really care about the humor.

The research suggests this is because of a "culturally-informed script," where men use humor as a conscious strategy for wooing women.

"Perhaps," the study concludes, "flirting by joking around by males is particularly attractive to traditional females, and female serving as a responsive audience are most attractive to traditional males."

Maybe that's true, or maybe guys are so caught up in nervously spitting out jokes that they forget to actually stop and laugh at the zingers ladies are throwing at them.

Photo via Flickr user Barry Pousman