8/28/09
Mate Poaching Study: Wedding Ring = Excellent Pickup Device

wedding_ringphoto by adactio

We’ve always heard from our less-than-scrupulous guy friends that a wedding band lures single women in like flies to honey — apparently it works better even than a cute puppy or a baby bjorn. Though, we suppose if we’re going to be really fair, we should save the word “unscrupulous” for the competitive biotches who pursue a man not despite, but because of his wedding band. And let it be said for the record that we have heard not one story about the reverse happening: apparently a woman in a wedding band just isn’t an aphrodisiac to men. Also, this is no longer mere hearsay: a recent study at Oklahoma State University confirmed that women are mate poaching biotches (we believe that’s the technical term) whereas men could care less whether or not a woman was attached. Yes, the women in the study were almost twice as likely to want to pursue a relationship with a man if they knew he was already taken. The researchers are still unclear whether mate poaching is nature or nurture — most likely, it’s a combination of the two: on the nature side, a taken man is “pre-screened” and thus likely to be a good catch, and on the nurture side, women — at least in the Western world — are socialized to be competitive biotches, and stealing someone else’s boyf makes them feel better about themselves. So much for single women complaining that “all the good ones are taken” — what they really mean is, all the taken ones are good.

This post is a part of Sundance Channel’s Naked Love Blog
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10 Comments

  1. Dan – married man

    Matches my experience. My wife was pregnant with our first child, and at the end of the baby shower her good (female) friend whispered to call her when she knew my wife would be gone. Friend had been drinking and I disclosed this to my wife and sister in law who said: “I mis-understood”.

    Another example: one woman said it was an ego boost to have a “taken” man and that it was a turn on to see a married man’s wedding ring during sex.

  2. Bogus sounds like one of those predators who trespass on other women’s lives. The study most certainly does not prove married women are insecure and fear single women. Married women have disdain for sluts who try to poach their husbands, but they most definitely do not fear them. Who would bother “fearing” a piece of trash at the curb?

  3. Did ANYONE notice that this “study” only included OSU 18-21 year olds? In what way do they represent women as a whole? This study is kind of like the one Dear Abby did where the conclusion was that most parents regret having had children.

    This study just proves that married women are insecure and fear single women, while married men desperately want to believe that getting married isn’t so awful and it’ll make you more attractive to other women. SOOOOO not true! Does no one actually read for comprehension anymore? This is BOGUS RESEARCH!

  4. When I was in my early twenties, a friend of mine gave me his wedding ring after his divorce. He told me to wear it and only hit on married women. I thought he was crazy.

    So I tried it. At first they would not care about their own ring but the more interested they got the more they tried to hide it. Be it under their other hand, in their lap, and even behind the back.

    Once I saw this I’d raise my hand to my mouth and say “all the wishing in the world won’t make it go away, but this works”. I’d then stick my ring finger in my mouth and pull the ring off. I worked like a charm. Granted it took alot of time and work to get to this point.

    Did get some attention from the single women but not as much.

  5. I have been married quite some time and last night at the Moody Blues concert in Indianapolis a girl hit on me sitting right next to my wife.

    Amazing as she grabbed my rear end and I thought it was my wife until I looked and saw her arm rather than my wife’s. She wanted to meet up later.

    Sorry for her but that is not my style. She is lucky my wife did not see her or all hell would have broken loose.

  6. Women….they are interesting creatures… I just got out of a relationship, and I’m happy to be single, because now I can chase these beautiful creatures all I want, without feeling guilty.

    But will I have to ask my girl back out so that I can get women again? Do I have to have a chick to get chicks?

  7. wtf? maybe some desperate women see a wedding ring as a sign that the guy can actually commit so they’re attracted to him? Or they somehow think they can out-do the wife and see it as a challenge (pretty narcissistic, considering they have never even seen the wife)…I would hope an intelligent, independent woman would NOT see a ring as a turn-on. I even get a little weirded out when I see a ring on the other finger! PS no offense, but where was this study done? In Oklahoma? University studies usually use, well, university college/students–which doesn’t actually make for a “normal” population. What was event the age range of the women studied? Maybe young, naive females (don’t hate, I’m 23) would find pursuing a guy with a ring “dangerous”?

  8. They’re less than whores. At least whores are trying to make a living. These women are just plain pathetic.

  9. Having heard from many married friends that once the ring goes on, the come-ons are many, I have to admit that in my more desperate hours, I have often considered going to the pawn shop, getting a ring and seeing what would happen. Best part would be that you have a good excuse for no-commitment sex. Alas, or thank goodness, I am not quite sure, I never worked up the nerve to try it.

  10. Women who try to get with a married man are whores. They deserve to be slapped. And the husband should be thrown out if he takes the other woman’s advances. Pure stupidity. What is wrong with society?? Cannot we act civil? Or is the drama, stress, hate, and jealousy of cheating worth it??

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