Woman most attracted to man if she's unsure

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a woman is more attracted to a man when she is uncertain about how much he likes her -- no word yet if this works the same in men.

Study authors Erin R. Whitchurch and Timothy D. Wilson of the University of Virginia and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University say they studied 47 female undergraduates were told the study was to determine if Facebook could be used as a dating site.

The women were told male students from other universities had viewed their profiles and up to 20 other females and then the women were shown four men's Facebook profiles that they were told were real, but were fictitious.

Some of the women were told four men liked them the most; others were told four men rated them about average and a third group didn't know about the level of the men's interest.

Women who believed the men liked them a lot were more attracted to those men than women who thought the men liked them only an average amount, but the women who found the men most attractive were the ones who weren't sure whether those men were into them or not, the researchers say.

"Keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest," the study authors say.

The findings are published in Psychological Science.