Scientists prove that self-deprecating humor trumps pickup lines

Getty Images
Getty Images


No sh*t, Sherlock, you're probably thinking. But that's because you're wicked smaht and would never attempt to pick up a hottie by asking them how they like their eggs in the morning. And yet, scientists in white lab coats (okay, anthropologists) spent two yearsstudying the role of humor in seduction to come up with a theory that the rest of us figured out during our first Hugh Grant movie: women like it when men make fun of themselves. Men like it too, according to the survey, but women like it more.

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The report is called "Dissing Oneself: The Sexual Attractiveness of Self-Dep-Humour" (jee-zuz, they make seduction sound about as exciting a stereo instruction manual). But before you go "dissing" yourself on the pickup scene, the report includes a dire warning that actually made us kinda sad: these methods should not be wielded by someone who is already unpopular. Apparently this could make "low-status individuals" appear "more pathetic" than they were before. In other words, just because it's cute when Hugh Grant does it, doesn't mean we can all pull it off.

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