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'Nice guys finish first', says scientist
The Daily Mail ^ | October 21, 2006 | FIONA MacRAE

Posted on 10/20/2006 5:31:13 PM PDT by MadIvan

Cads and bounders may have a certain appeal, but when it comes to getting the girl, nice guys really do finish first.

Scientists have shown that nice guys, often dismissed as being wimpish and lacking in excitement, are actually more attractive to women than their more macho counterparts.

Psychologist Professor Mark Van Vugt set up a series of experiments designed to test the pros and cons of being nice.

Volunteers were given a fictional sum of money and asked to make 'donations'. Some contributions were made public, while others were kept confidential.

Members of the group were also asked what they thought of the others and to rate them in terms of status and leadership potential.

The results showed that people gave more money away when their donations were made public. Also, the altruists were seen as more influential and were more often picked out as being leaders.

Prof Van Vugt concluded that niceness pays.

He believes that while the selfless may lose out in the short term, using up time, energy, and even money, to help others, in the long term, they are quids in.

This is because their kindness raises them in other's estimations, giving them higher social status and more opportunities - both in work and in love.

This could explain why we have evolved do things that have no apparent benefit to ourselves, such as volunteering to join the army, rescuing a stranger from a burning building or returning a wallet found in the street.

The professor said: "In a world where people can choose who they want to interact with, altruists create more opportunities for themselves than selfish people."

Writing in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, he added: "By spending excessive amounts of energy, time, and money on activities that are essentially unselfish, altruists advertise some desirable underlying quality that is costly to obtain and hard to control, such as genetic endowment, health or vigour.

"The altruist benefits by increasing his or her social status and thus the likelihood that he or she will be chosen as a mate or ally.

"Through this, the altruists are able to recoup the costs of their display in the long run.

"In other words, nice guys should finish first."


TOPICS: Science; Society
KEYWORDS: abigwadhelpstoo; girls; niceguys
Sounds rather more like better publicity than actual niceness.

Regards, Ivan

1 posted on 10/20/2006 5:31:14 PM PDT by MadIvan
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To: Mrs Ivan; odds; DCPatriot; Deetes; Barset; fanfan; LadyofShalott; Tolik; mtngrl@vrwc; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 10/20/2006 5:31:26 PM PDT by MadIvan (I aim to misbehave.)
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To: MadIvan

Honesty wins over corruption is what it looks like to me.


3 posted on 10/20/2006 5:33:37 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Democrats cannot be trusted with national security. See Larry Hanauer.)
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To: MadIvan
but when it comes to getting the girl, nice guys really do finish first.

so not true, especially when you're young(maybe when your dating in your late 30's or 40's)

4 posted on 10/20/2006 5:44:51 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: MadIvan
Scientists have shown that nice guys, often dismissed as being wimpish and lacking in excitement, are actually more attractive to women than their more macho counterparts.

yea, attractive as in "friends", NOT "bed room" :D

I have done both and was WAY more successful being slightly rude and mean.

5 posted on 10/20/2006 5:49:30 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: Echo Talon
I have done both and was WAY more successful being slightly rude and mean.

Truly nice girls won't go for this; they (we) really do want nice guys. Trust me on this.

The kind of girl who would push you away for treating her with respect isn't the type of girl you'd want, anyway (at least, I hope not! ;-))

Think of it as an "early warning signal" to tell you which ones to avoid ;-)

6 posted on 10/20/2006 7:11:05 PM PDT by annie laurie (All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost)
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To: MadIvan

In reality, he may get the girl, but he will, knowing or not, be raising the children of the cad or bounder.

I have a good friend who does DNA matching for bone marrow donors. It is actually unusual for a woman with 3 children to have all by the same father. Particularly the religious ones.


7 posted on 10/20/2006 7:15:34 PM PDT by donmeaker (If the sky don't say "Surrender Dorothy!" then my ex wife is out of town.)
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To: MadIvan

Somebody slap this lying piece of skirt-chasin' trash.


8 posted on 10/20/2006 7:16:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Dhimmicrati delenda est! https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: donmeaker

Bingo!


9 posted on 10/20/2006 7:17:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Dhimmicrati delenda est! https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: All

Wow.

So much bitterness on this thread. I'm sorry that you guys have had such negative experiences with women.

Perhaps the problem is that you've been attracted to "bad girls," rather than "nice girls" (and yes, fellas, nice girls really do exist).


10 posted on 10/20/2006 7:45:24 PM PDT by annie laurie (All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost)
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To: annie laurie
So much bitterness on this thread. I'm sorry that you guys have had such negative experiences with women.

Some people are just born cynical, annie.....
They can't help it, I guess........

11 posted on 10/20/2006 8:04:35 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: MadIvan
Sounds very much like "nice guys" are good leaders. So, if nice guys are good leaders, they have power. Power is very attractive to females (power means he can provide well for more children to the lizard part of the brain). To me this says that nice guys are not initially attractive, but as they age and acquire power they become more attractive.
12 posted on 10/20/2006 8:06:30 PM PDT by Talking_Mouse (wahhabi delenda est)
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To: MadIvan; All

The operational definition for the study is a joke.

Manliness = baaaad

sissy boy metrosexual = good.

Empirical evidence concludes otherwise.


13 posted on 10/21/2006 5:31:07 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: donmeaker
It is actually unusual for a woman with 3 children to have all by the same father. Particularly the religious ones.

Incoming!!!!!!!P>

14 posted on 10/21/2006 5:53:34 AM PDT by vikzilla
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: DaveLoneRanger

My mom has 5 kids.

Their like is not in the world today, alas.


17 posted on 10/21/2006 11:23:05 AM PDT by donmeaker (If the sky don't say "Surrender Dorothy!" then my ex wife is out of town.)
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To: DaveLoneRanger

Cicero said that a young man should marry, so that he would be accepted by society, then divorce before his wife could do him ill, then adopt an honorable and learned young man, so that he would know what he was getting.

His son was once named in a will, to get one ninth of a wealthy lady's inheritance, if he would change his name. Cicero said he would postpone writing about the value of the honor of his name until he found out what a third of a third was worth.


18 posted on 10/22/2006 8:13:11 PM PDT by donmeaker (If the sky don't say "Surrender Dorothy!" then my ex wife is out of town.)
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