According to the Telegraph, British men are the least romantic in the world, and have no idea what women want. But as a woman, I am puzzled, what do we want?
According to psychologist Richard Wiseman, author of the study on romance carried out at the University of Hertfordshire, women do not want expensive presents. "Contrary to what many men believe, you do not have to spend large sums of money to woo a woman – it really is the thought that counts," he said. Wiseman, who, by the way, has an amusingly bizarre personal blog, conducted a survey of 6,500 men and women from various countries. He asked men and women what they thought was romantic, and found that among the Brits, there was a large discrepancy between what the ladies want and what men think they want.
Wiseman generated a list of the best ways to woo a woman, which beings with "cover her eyes and lead her to a lovely surprise," and ends with "make her a compilation of her favorite music" (yes, the other eight are also moves pulled straight from your average chick flick). However, British men seem woefully ignorant about the ten magic gestures that women really want: they are, apparently, up to 10% less likely to make romantic gestures than men from other countries, and when they do, it is often the wrong one.
He found that "only 32 per cent of British men had written a song or poem about their partner, compared to 41 per cent of non-British men." Only 32%? That's still a lot of terrible poetry. He also said that only 44% had taken their partners on a surprise vacation, compared to 51% of men overseas. Wiseman concluded that there is a disparity between how men and women rank romance, with men tending to ignore the "psychological impact of small romantic gestures."
This means that men should stop buying expensive lingerie and start drawing women a lot more baths. "Women like them because they show men are into them and thinking of them rather than themselves," he says.
British Men 'Among Least Romantic' [Telegraph]
What Women Want: Top Ten Romantic Gestures [Telegraph]