Guys say I love you first.
The larger happiness increase comes when a lady confesses her love before the couple has sex, researchers reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
From an evolution point of view where guys value the chance to reproduce and females value commitment to raise kids, the findings make sense, the researchers wrote. Guys may well prefer a pre-sex confession simply because it comes using the promise of getting some action within the near future. Ladies, however, would prefer the post-sex confession due to the fact it means the sex comes having a commitment.
The researchers recruited 45 students and other passersby at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies and asked them whether they thought men or females stated, ” I love you “first in relationships. 64% said women had been most most likely to drop the L-word first. On average, the respondents predicted, females would say “I love you” 23 days prior to men.
In truth, the researchers determined after surveying about 100 undergraduates and 47 heterosexual couples of all ages, between 61 percent and 70 percent of people said the man had said “I love you” first in their past or present relationship. On average, men considered saying “I love you” 42 days before ladies did, suggesting that the difference was not just based on females waiting for men to create the very first move.
Further study showed that, when asked to envision a scenario in which their girlfriend stated “I love you,” men reported the biggest imagined happiness if the confession came prior to the two had ever had sex. Following sex, men reported a slightly smaller happiness increase when the confession was made.
Women, in comparison, were less impressed with pre-sex confessions, but became considerably happier if the “I love you” came soon after the couple had started having sex.