Research suggests men are clueless when it comes to women.
 

Good news guys, apparently we're to blame for us reading women incorrectly. Luckily, we are given this revelation by a woman, in this classy, not-at-all male-bashing* article

Clueless Guys Can't Read Women | LiveScience

Communication is a two-way street. To simply blame men is an exercise in futility. I often mistake signals from women but I don't think it's because I'm clueless. Half the time it's women sending mixed signals at ME. I wouldn't go so far as to say women are totally to blame, but if you're sending signals that 70% of your audience is misinterpreting, I would say the fault lies more with the sender.

I call bullshit. I don't think the interpretation of the study by this author has anything to do with non-verbal communication at all.

The following passage gives away the agenda....

Anyone who has spent any amount of time around feminists know that gender as a social construct instead of a biological instinct is a pillar of modern feminism thought.

Oh no, they're using science to justify a political ideology! :(

This is utter truth. I know this because I know one guy who says, "Yeaaaaah buddy! She WANTS my cock!" about every girl who smiles at him. My research is infallible.

So, wait, they're basing the survey group's decisions based upon a previous survey of students, the exact people they're trying to show are poor communicators?

Don't most men admit to being clueless when it comes to women anyway? o_O

No. Most men who are completely socially inept will say this. It's a way of making up for the fact they have no idea how to interact with people. "I'm bad with women because I don't understand them."

I've never had a problem understanding women. They're not all that different from men.

Men are about as clueless to reading non-verbal signals as women are obsessive about the possibility that something was a signal. Honest to god I have listened to a friend of mine obsess for hours about whether the fact that a guy she knew nodded at her in passing in the hall was a signal or not. Seriously, two and a half hours of my life wasted away. Women are just generally more detail oriented then men so they see a lot more being communicated through simple gestures then guys do. Neither is right or wrong, just different.

For you. I imagine that you "get" women. You know how to deal with them. Why? Because you care to.

I don't think women are complicated at all. Maybe it's because I am a female. Who knows. But I've always thought that if you care to pay attention to patterns and behaviors, you can also "understand" us. Most men don't seem to care about making a genuine effort on the learning bit.

Women often say that MEN are complicated. They're not, if you're willing to communicate, take some extra time to think about a perspective, so on, so forth.

Communication, I suppose, is the most important.

((I've always been a lot better at communicating with men than women. Maybe it has to do with my upbringing and how my mind works. *SHRUG*))

There are no universal body language signals, contrary to some peoples belief (e.g. the writer of this article), and I just get irritated when people think you should notice some of these ridiculous "signals". If for some reason the recipient of these "love signals" doesn't catch on it's not in any way his or her fault, in that case, it's the sender not being clear enough. If sending very subtle signals doesn't let the guy/girl know that you like her/him, be less subtle and just go on harder and tell her/him that you like them and don't complain about it. Heck, not all men/women are experienced in this field, and I can say myself that I tend to have hard time understanding signals like this at times, I guess it can be because of a lack of experience, but I can't help that can I?

If you want someone to understand, just be more clear about it. There's no other way, I guess.

I guess I'm kinda guilty about not being able to read signals. But I more just don't notice them then misread them. And it's not like women are really any better. Basicly any girl I've ever liked never noticed inspite of how obvious I would make it. I mean I'd be so obvious that anyone else observing us would notice but the girl wouldn't. I think maybe people don't notice those kind of signals if it's not someone they're interested in? I think they'd also probably more likely to misread friendly signals if they're coming from someone they like to. There are just way too many factors that this "research" doesn't take into consideration.

The only way this research would be close to valid for me would be if they had hetero and homosexual men and women reading signals from the same sex. Just doing (presumably) straight people reading the opposite sex doesn't seem throrogh enough. If there was a large descrepency in same sex readings vs. opposite sex readings THEN and only then would that give some credibility to this.

I know lots of guys that think every smile, a simple hug or even that they happened to look in their general direction, is a sign that a girl is into them. Not to say that I haven't been guilty of those types of thoughts myself either, but thoughts are only one piece of the puzzle. I don't act on those 'signals' every single time. In fact, I don't act usually until I have some form of confirmation. But then, even then you can be wrong cause like sprout said, some girls just give plain mixed up messages. Freaking retarded.

*Also, the whole time reading this thread and typing this post, there was a video of dancing anime cheerleaders or something playing in the corner. Hooray for april fools day =P"

I actually know a lot of girls who interpret every look/smile/hello/wave as "he's interested in me." Three of my closest friends actually will tell me that some guy in a car, driving down the street, was checking them out. What I see is somebody glancing about. They will almost always say something like, "That guy was checking us/you/me out." If I propose that he might have...I don't know...just turned his head while waiting for the stoplight to change, they'll shoot me down and say that I don't know how to read men.

It's true, I don't know how to read men in a romantic sense...but I sure as hell know how to read men in everyday life. And 95% of the time, these guys are just being human, not flirting. But whatever.

Same here, for the most part. I'm excellent at being friends and hanging out with men, but anything beyond that and I flounder about hopelessly.

Miscommunication goes both ways. Men and women naturally communicate differently but there are some people who happen to communicate like the other gender and therefore end up being slightly more intuitive. However, no one's a mind reader, aren't we all clueless when it comes to something we don't know? Unless it's my sister or my husband, I can't predict what someone is going to do or what they mean with non-verbal cues unless it's obvious.

Research like this bugs me. :p

The smarter men who understand women will do so. Because most women will find convenience in going about believing the above statement and living by it. Thus, the men whom are truly intelligent, will shut their mouths about the subject, say they know nothing of it, and opt to listen to the female so that they can move on to a different subject.

Key thing, guys. Active LISTENING is 98% of the battle. If you can overcome this step and learn to do this well, I shit you not, not only will you get laid in every other city you come across but you will make big money in customer service / sales positions. The other 2% is tact, style, and charisma.

Nobody can understand women. Not even women. They think they know their place, but they don't. Men think they understand what women say, but all they think about is sex.

So yeah, I think this research is just stating a common fact that's been going on around for decades.

Also, it's much better talking to someone rather than giving them a wink. A wink may mean a lot of things. Why not go direct to the point? Which is a lot easier said than done.

Analyzing body language is impossible. Whatever happened to the notion that everyone is different? So every woman that tosses her hair around me, i'm supposed to realize that she's sending me a signal?

Let's be logical here, if you like someone, tell them the truth. Why play games and hope that person catches on? Isn't that hoping for too much, I mean, we're only human here. Sadly, these are the harsh realities of society today, you either pick up on a signal, or get left behind.

I don't believe anyone said anything like that. If you have trouble reading body language, perhaps you have a problem with communication in general.

Yea, see, body language is a little more complex than that. Consider conditions, circumstances, whatever is surrounding a situation. (In other words, use your fucking head) Most body language is unnoticed to the person performing the actions.

Just because a woman tosses her hair when she walks by you doesn't mean she wants you. It means she wanted to toss her hair.

Things aren't always so black and white. The sooner you start paying attention, using your head to put the pieces together, and actually give a good goddamn about understanding (instead of plugging your ears and saying LA LA LA), you're not going very far.

Again, things aren't always so black and white.

For example, in a work place, two people maybe be VERY attracted to each other (and send each other signals), but it would behoove them not to let on that they were seeing each other or what have you.

"Signals," as I guess we're calling them, are not always intentional either.

Hair flips, lip-licking, things like this are often subconscious gestures. It's not like a woman always INTENTIONALLY hair-flips when she thinks it's the right time.

It's all about the subtleties.

LeHah suggests that this research was a waste of money, since everyone knew this already.

I don't try to read women anyway. I'm not into that whole "signal" deal. I've always been up front and open about things, and I'd like to think women can be too. Luckily, I've met women who are like that.

But I don't have really any ego, so I pretty much never have looked or talked to a girl and assumed she liked me.

To: Women
From: Men

Subject: If you like us

Body: Dear Women, if you like us and want to date / fuck us, say so. Be blunt, be obvious, Be DIRECT. Your chances of success rise by an average of 75%*

Sincerely,
Men.

*Individual results may vary

Why should we cater to your needs when other men make an actual effort to communicate with us?

My mother once summed it up nicely:

"Boys are stupid, girls are crazy."

"Oh, is your Mommy a doctor?
A scientific researcher of some kind?
Well then she's hardly a credible expert, is she?"

Do you know why men and women don't communicate? Because for years mothers like yours have fucking LIED to them about there being these drastic differences between the sexes. There just isn't. You've been categorically tricked into believing you need to do something special to read the opposite gender, or read ridiculous books and watch shitty daytime TV to figure out what to do.

I'm going to let you in on the secret...

THERE IS NO FUCKING SECRET.

Talk to them like a normal fucking human being. Don't have your head up your ass. That's the trick. Crazy, isn't it? Now go away and stop being a douche bag. All of you.