Speed-dating: Women decide in seconds

Men only have a few seconds in order to impress a woman - and their success will stand or fall by the quality of their opening line, a speed-dating study conducted as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival revealed.

According to the experiment, in which 500 speed dates were held, women need about 30 seconds in order to make up their mind about a potential partner.

Professor Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire, who conducted the study, said: "Men are often accused of being shallow and judging women very quickly. However, this evidence suggests that women may make up their minds much quicker than men. It suggests men have only a few seconds to impress a woman, thus emphasizing the importance of their opening comments."

About one-third of the participants reached a firm decision about a future partner within 30 seconds, but there was a significant difference between the men and women: About 45 percent of the women made up their minds within half a minute, compared to only 22 percent of the men.

In a bid to discover the most successful opening comments, the researchers compared the participants' conversations. It was revealed that the most successful ones were those who encouraged their dates to talk about themselves in a unique way.

The top-rated best opening line by a man by a man was: "If you were on Star in Your Eyes, who would you be?," while the top-rated question asked by a woman was: "What is your favorite Pizza topping?"

Among the most unsuccessful opening comments were: "Do you come here often?" or failed efforts to impress by boasting "I have a PhD in computing."

Conversations about films increase chances of disagreement

According to the report on the "Manchester Online" website, the experiment's participants were asked to discuss different topics, in order to asses which of the subjects were best for brining two people together.

When talking about films, less than 9 percent of the couples wanted to meet for a second date, possibly due to the very different tastes men and women have in movies (just under half of the men said they prefer action films, compared to 18 percent of the women. Some 29 percent of the women favored musicals, compared to only 4 percent of the men).

"Whenever our couples spoke about films they really increased their chances of disagreement," said Professor Wiseman. "In contrast, conversations about travel tend to revolve around great holidays and dream destinations, and that makes people feel good and so appear more attractive to one another."