Cute Guys Are More Attractive

Women prefer men who can make them laugh and men like women who laugh at their jokes.

PRAYOGI DWI SULISTYO

Barcelona's French attacker, Antoine Griezmann (second from the left), laughs while participating in the first pre-season training session at the Joan Gamper training center in Sant Joan Despi, Barcelona, Spain, on Monday (15/7/2019).

It's not just bad boys who are sexually attractive in the eyes of women. Funny guys, humorists, or those who like to make jokes that make other people laugh are no less interesting. In the eyes of some women, cute men are considered smarter, sexier and more attractive as marriage partners.

Humor is a form of modern human communication that is complex. Not everyone is able to produce jokes that can make others laugh joyfully.

Therefore, humor has become a potential investment for humans to build social relations with others, including in seeking long-term romantic relationships.

A study by Mitch Brown and colleagues in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, September 4 2023, found that women prefer men who are funny to men who have a mediocre sense of humor. Moreover, if a man who is good at being funny also has an attractive physical appearance.

Also read: Laugh Before Laughing is Forbidden

As a complex tool of modern human communication, humor usually arises when we collectively detect a harmless violation of norms. If the joke can be felt by others, the humor created by someone will become a shared laughter.

Humor has developed into a tool for bonding and maintaining social cohesion. Therefore, someone with a good sense of humor is generally more socially appealing and thus more likely to find friends or a partner.

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One of the Indonesian Laughter Yoga activities at the Guidance and Counseling Study Program at Sanata Dharma University, Yoyakarta, 27 May 2018.

Although conventionally humor is always associated with warm and good relationships, the impact of humor on men and women is different. Funny guys are much more attractive to women than less funny men. Conversely, women who are funny are often less attractive to men.

Yes, humor only increases men's attraction to women, not the other way around. "Men produce humor and women evaluate it," she said. However, women can still use their sense of humor to attract men even if the results are not optimal.

Humor makes it easier to attract interest in women because humorous behavior in men has a positive connotation.

Humor is often associated with the friendliness and warmth that a man shows towards his potential partner. From this, humor turns into a characteristic that women desire in men.

Also read: Laughter is Healthy

In society, as written by a psychiatrist in London, England, Rafa Euba, in Psychology Today, 27 October 2023, humor is often considered an indicator of a person's intelligence and creativity. A man's sense of humor has the potential to make romantic relationships go better.

In reality, it makes sense if someone is interested in another person because that person is funny. A funny person can make someone have a positive view towards them and also form a positive relationship.

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Paspampres members played and laughed together at the Paspampres Group B family gathering, Sunday (3/12/2023).

A study by Gil Greengross and Geoffrey Miller in the journal Intelligence, July-August 2011, said that the ability to produce humor comes from general intelligence and verbal intelligence. The ability to produce humor in men is greater than in women.

However, fundamentally, men like women who can laugh at their jokes and women prefer men who make them laugh.

Therefore, men can enhance their attractiveness towards women by learning how to make women laugh. Meanwhile, women can increase their attractiveness by laughing more.

"The sense of humor has evolved through sexual selection as an indicator of intelligence," he writes. Therefore, the ability to produce humor can be a predictor in determining the number of marital partners someone has.

British neuroscience expert, Dean Burnett, in his article in The Guardian, 19 May 2016, said that a person's ability to be funny and entertain other people is also a sign of a person's good psychological health and fitness.

Making a joke requires intelligence, quick thinking, and good acting skills. Therefore, people who are good at humor are potential good partners from the perspective of health or genetics.

A sense of humor has evolved through sexual selection as an indicator of intelligence.

Actions or funny words are like the beautiful antlers of a deer or the beautiful tail of a peacock that make them more attractive or tempting to their partner, also a sign that their health condition is good.

Eric Barker, author of the book Plays Well With Others (2022), in his writing in Time, June 12 2014, said that funny guys are sexy because funny people are smart and smart is sexy . This ability to create humor can compensate for a man's shortcomings in finding a partner, especially regarding his less attractive physical appearance.

This condition is able to explain how a comedian or someone who likes to joke around can still have a female partner with an attractive physical appearance, even though the man himself is not attractive.

Not only are they considered smarter and have better health conditions, funny people are also seen as having the potential for higher income.

Controversy

However, studies that prove the hypothesis that funny men are more sexually attractive were refuted in a study by Henry M Wainwright and colleagues in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, January 2024. In this study, cuteness makes a person more attractive, but the impact on attractiveness is insignificant.

This study is also not immune to criticism from other scientists. According to Euba, the study was conducted based on a quick date that lasted only three minutes. In such a short time, it will be difficult to elicit laughter because someone who has just met for the first time, especially on a date, generally feels nervous.

Also read: Humor, Reflecting While Laughing

Burnett also believes that the notion that someone who is cute has biological health and fitness is also not a foregone conclusion.

In fact, in some cases, many people who are skilled at joking, laughing a lot, always showing enthusiasm and happy faces, are actually the most psychologically unhealthy ones. Laughing becomes a way for some people to bury and cover up their sadness.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Young women laugh between conversations as they take a leisurely walk in a motorized vehicle-free area in Jakarta, Sunday (28/5/2023).

On the other hand, humor, often synonymous with flattery, does indeed make people more easily interested. However, this attraction is believed to not be solely due to the humor, but the positive impression that someone has gained from the funny person since the beginning of their acquaintance.

This is what is called the "halo effect," which is the initial impression we have of someone that can create bias when we are going to evaluate them.

A man who appears more attractive because of his humorous attitude happens because from the beginning we have a positive view of that person. We laugh at hearing and seeing the jokes or humor of that person because unconsciously we are already attracted to the funny man.

On the other hand, when we are not interested in someone, it is often difficult for us to respond positively to their jokes or humor.

This condition makes people who have a more attractive physical appearance easier to invite laughter. However, initial attraction from someone often comes from their physical appearance.

Furthermore, according to Burnett, the stronger effect of humor on men than women cannot be separated from the evolutionary mechanisms rooted in humans.

In many cultures, women are considered unfit or not supposed to be funny. If someone opposes this convention, they will be opposed or even "attacked".

This situation also explains why comedy groups or comedians on television, film, or content on social media always pair up comedians who happen to be lacking an attractive physical appearance with beautiful and sexy women who are not funny to compensate or give color to their jokes.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

A father laughed with his wife while carrying their child and walking in the motor vehicle-free area of Jakarta on Sunday (28/5/2023).

Humor and attraction have a mutual relationship. However, the relationship between humor and the process of searching for a romantic partner has not been fully understood by humans.

In reality, a person's sexual attraction to another person is not only determined by one main component that can determine the success or failure of someone to find a marriage partner.

So, if you are a man who is not funny or has a low sense of humor, there is no need to worry. There are many things that can make a woman interested in you, whether it's because of your attractive physical appearance or your intelligence and views that impress women.

In fact, it may also be because of their patient, nurturing or nurturing attitude, that they are willing to listen to all their complaints, which makes someone attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex. What is certain is that everyone has certain sources of interest that they can attract or can use to attract their potential partner.