Why funny guys get the babes

* Story Highlights
* Study: Women rate funny guys as more intelligent and honest
* The research relates to model that women look for men who can give resources
* Humor is also an important part of friendships, author says
* Also at the conference: "Computer rage" is commonplace

By Elizabeth Landau
CNN

(CNN) -- Attention, single dudes: Women want you to make them laugh.

According to new research, women rate funny guys as more intelligent than guys who are not so funny. The research was presented this week at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton, England.

"Over the course of history, women actively look for signs that their man is intelligent, and I believe the ability to actively judge the situation and pull off a joke and make you laugh is an intelligent feat," said Kristofor McCarty, a researcher at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, and author of the study, in an e-mail.

McCarty's study asked 45 heterosexual women aged 18 to 30 to rate various self-descriptions of men, some funnier than others.

He invented the fictional lives of 10 men and then created a funny and not-so-funny vignette from each of their perspectives. Then, participants read all 20 descriptions and rated them on qualities such as likeliness of friendship, likeliness of long-term relationship, honesty and intelligence.

One example the study designated as high-quality humor was this: "I was standing in a mental illness ward the other day when I heard a doctor speaking to a new nurse on the ward. He was really giving her a telling-off, and his parting words were, 'And remember, when it's busy, don't go around saying it's a madhouse,' " McCarty said.

By contrast, a statement low on amusement was, "I was out skiing last year when I ended up slipping all the way down the mountain."

To set a general standard of humor, McCarty did a preliminary study to test which jokes and humorous statements were the funniest on 35 females aged 18 to 30.

Women said the men with the funniest descriptions were significantly more likely to be candidates for long-term relationships, as well as friends. Participants also rated the more amusing men as more intelligent and honest.

Previous research in evolutionary psychology has indicated that for long-term mating, women value a man's likelihood of acquiring resources: for instance, someone likely to earn a good salary. That idea recalls the early days of humans, when women relied on men's resources during childbearing years.

The study, though small in sample size, also relates to this model. A more intelligent person is less likely to fall into traps, McCarty said, and may be more able to provide for a mate and children. Read more about the brain and human behavior

Given that laughing makes people feel better, it also makes sense evolutionarily that women would prefer men with a good sense of humor, especially to help with the hardships of taking care of children, said Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and author of the recent book "Why Him? Why Her? Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type."

"People who have a good sense of humor may be likely to lighten up very bad situations and therefore reduce the stress response and simply enable you to get over the hump in bad parts of the relationship," said Fisher, who was not involved with McCarty's study.

Humor also helps creativity, said Peter Derks, professor emeritus of psychology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, who did not work on McCarty's study. The field of positive psychology -- which looks at well-being and happiness -- posits that humor leads to happiness and happiness leads to health, he said. This suggests that humor does have some survival value as well.

But humor is not used only in long-term sexual relationships, McCarty said. It plays an important role among friends and "also developed as a desired trait in friendship for social reasons," he said.

Do men also think funny women are more intelligent and honest? Time constraints prevented McCarty from exploring this question, but he said research suggests that men don't care much about women's sense of humor.

"A man wants a woman who laughs at his jokes and is not too bothered if his girl isn't funny at all," McCarty said.

On the other hand, Derks said, researchers have found that women who are good at being funny -- eliciting laughter -- are seen as positively as are funny men.

Here's another tidbit from the British conference: Research indicates that "computer rage" -- including shouting at your computer and hitting the keyboard and mouse -- has become a common expression of anger and stress relief.

John Charlton of the University of Bolton, who presented at the conference, said these expressions were mostly linked to unsatisfactory work progress and time pressures.

怨女進修尋愛 男人哪去了

【聯合報／編譯張佑生／報導】 2007.05.22 02:59 am

歷經兩年多的線上約會，滿懷沮喪的夏綠蒂庫琳決心少花點時間追求男伴，多花點時間從事喜好的活動。她投入網球、跑步、遊艇、騎馬、行軍甩肉健身營、水肺潛水，想當然爾認為在伏地挺身和白浪滔滔之間，自己或許能碰上一些合適的對象。

她的確碰上了，只不過都是女生。

「你以為會遇見一些不錯的男人，」現年卅四歲的庫琳是紐約「好市不動產」的行銷副總裁。她說：「但就是沒有。」

庫琳娓娓道來心中的無奈：「我在網球俱樂部待了四個月，平均六個人裡面才有一個男的。看久了會覺得還蠻可愛的，因為沒有其他人可以看。」

莎士比亞早說過：「真愛之路從不平順。」豈止不平順，更有苦悶。

紐約時報說，約會專家給單身者的傳統建議是打高爾夫、烹飪或者上音樂課，在沒有壓力的情境下，自然就能找到情投意合的異性。但是在紐約，這些課程大多女多男少。理由和男生在開車時永遠不問路的原因差不多，規劃課程的專家表示，坦承對某個主題一無所知，有損男性尊嚴。

來參加這些課程的女性通常都是成功、聰明和大膽的女性，但是這些追求豐富人生及愛情的女性卻發現，班上的男性荷爾蒙嚴重不足。

「他們在哪兒？」參加大都會博物館建築課程研習的溫蒂希爾，講出許多人共同的疑問：「男人都到哪兒去了？」現年四十五歲的希爾是一名行政助理，她說班上的男同學都是一些年逾花甲的歐吉桑。

沒有人否認在泰拳或爵士賞析的課程中，會偶爾滋生出愛苗。有些女性或許只是太挑或者太急。不過，對於團體課程當中女多男少的抱怨也不是無的放矢。

監督觀察紐約這些團體課程的專家說，問題可能出在男性傾向於避免接受團體指導，特別是初學者的課程，因為男生覺得自己早該知道了，例如運動和酒類。真的要找人指導，通常偏愛一對一的課程。

紐約時報說，紐約一間網球俱樂部每周提供五十多堂團體課程，百分之八十的學員是女生。基督教青年會的寫作班，女跟男的比例大約是二點五比一。甚至有老師用驚訝的口氣跟班主任報告：「我的班上有一個男生呢！」跑步、游泳、鐵人三項的基礎課程，女男比例更加懸殊，有的甚至高達九比一。如果不願意從「寧缺勿濫」淪落到「寧濫勿缺」，要找到合適對象的難度絕對不低。

【2007/05/22 聯合報】