A recent study out of France suggests that a college male’s sunny personality may not be the only thing influencing his game.
From late May to early June, Nicolas Gueguen, a University of South Brittany professor, challenged five 20-year-old male undergraduates to obtain phone numbers from 500 different female students between the ages of 18 and 25.
The male students in the study used a scripted dialogue that read, “Hello. My name’s Antoine. I just want to say that I think you’re really pretty. I have to go to work this afternoon, and I was wondering if you would give me your phone number. I’ll phone you later, and we can have a drink together someplace.”
On cloudy days, the male students retrieved phone numbers 13.9 percent of the time with an average of 259 different women. On sunny days, however, phone number retrieval increased to 22.4 percent.
The evidence suggests that male students should wait for the sun to break through the clouds before they consider approaching female classmates.
Youngstown State University junior Brett Lemke said he would keep the study in mind when approaching women for a date. “I’ll definitely use this information again, but if it’s cloudy outside, I’ll bring the sunshine,” Lemke said.
Kristina Delco, a YSU senior, said if she was approached for her phone number, she would react based upon her mood at the time.
In addition, the presence of sunshine has also been found to have a positive effect on mood and social behavior. People tend to leave bigger tips and are more likely to help out strangers on sunny days. William Fry, a psychology professor at YSU, said the sunny weather may cause people to be more open with others.
“If the weather’s nice out, people are going to have more patience and [be] willing to listen to others,” Fry said. “People might feel more adventurous or even more physically active.”
Lemke said that depending on how he feels, he might go out and put the results to the test.
“This is actually really interesting,” he said. “I’d like to see more studies like this come out.”