Does being nice and responsive increase sexual desire in her? Do men perceive responsive women as more attractive and vice versa? The answers lie in slowing down if the goal is to instil sexual desire.
People often say that they seek a partner that is "responsive to their needs" and that such a partner would arouse their sexual interest.
To find the answers, researchers looked at three studies to observe people's perceptions of responsiveness.
In the first study, they found that men who perceived female partners as more responsive also perceived them as more feminine and more attractive.
However, women's perceptions of partner responsiveness were marginally and negatively associated with perceptions of partner attractiveness.
Participants in the second study were asked to interact with a responsive or non-responsive individual of the opposite sex.
Men who interacted with a responsive female individual perceived her as more feminine and as more sexually attractive.
Women, however, were more cautious than men when interpreting a stranger's expressions of responsiveness and their perceptions of the stranger.
In the final study, heightened sexual arousal was linked to both increased perception of partner attractiveness and greater desire for a long-term relationship with that partner.
"Some women feel uncomfortable about a new acquaintance who seems to want to be close. Such feelings may impair sexual attraction to this responsive stranger," said lead researcher Gurit Birnbaum from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel.
Other women may perceive a responsive stranger as warm and caring and therefore as a desirable long-term partner.
Some women may perceive such person as inappropriately nice and trying to obtain sexual favours.
"Yet, responsiveness may be one of those initial 'sparks' necessary to fuel sexual desire and land a second date," Birnbaum advised in the study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
