Weather and courtship behavior: A quasi-experiment with the flirty sunshine

Abstract

Studies have shown that pleasant weather conditions (namely sunshine) favor positive social relationships and improve moods. However, the effect of sunshine on romantic relationships has never been studied. In a field quasi-experiment 18–25-year-old women walking alone in the street were approached by an attractive 20-year-old male confederate who solicited them for their phone numbers. The women were solicited on days that were evaluated as being either sunny or cloudy but care was taken to control for temperature and not to solicit participants when it rained. It was found that women agreed more often to the confederate's courtship solicitation on the sunny days. Positive mood induction by the sun may explain such results.

Keywords:

• Weather
• Sun
• Women
• Courtship

Several experimental studies have shown that human social relationships are positively affected by the weather. Cunningham (1979) found that participants approached by an interviewer to participate in a survey were less reluctant to comply on sunny days compared with cloudy days. In a second study by this author the outside level of sunshine was found to be significantly related to the gratuity left by restaurant customers for a waitress. Hirshleifer and Shumway (2003) reported that sunshine level was positively correlated with returns on the stock market. Simonsohn (2007), examining actual university admission decisions, found that applicants’ academic attributes were weighted more heavily on cloudy days while non-academic attributes were weighted more heavily on sunny days. This author also reported that cloudiness increased the appeal of academic activities (Simonsohn, 2010). Research has also found expectations of weather to be associated with variation in helping behavior. Rind (1996) conducted an experiment in hotel rooms that did not have windows. A male server who delivered food and drinks to the rooms reported the sky conditions (sunny, partly sunny, cloudy, or rainy) to guests. More tips were left when the server mentioned pleasant weather conditions. In the study by Rind and Strohmetz (2001) a server in a restaurant was asked to either leave the backs of customers’ checks blank or to write one of two messages: that the weather would be good the next day or that the weather would not be so good the next day. More tips were found to be left by the customers when they were given a favorable forecast.

Overall, these studies seem to show that variation in sunshine is associated with variation in human behavior. To explain this relation scientists argue that sunshine activates positive emotions and good mood, which in turn influence behavior. Research has found that sunshine is clearly associated with positive mood (Cunningham, 1979; Denissen, Butalid, Penke, & van Aken, 2008; Keller et al., 2005) and several studies reported that positive mood facilitated social relationships and helping behavior (Bizman, Yinin, Ronco, & Schachar, 1980; Forgas, 1997, 1998; Harris & Smith, 1975; Job, 1987; Rind, 1997; Weyant, 1978),

If actual or expected pleasant weather conditions facilitate positive social relationships, we can hypothesize that other behaviors, such as a courtship solicitation, are affected by weather. Research has found that courtship behaviors are influenced by environmental factors.

In a field experiment conducted by Guéguen (2012), 18–25-year-old women walking alone in a shopping mall were approached by an attractive 20-year-old male confederate who solicited them for their phone numbers. The women were solicited as they were walking in areas with pleasant ambient odors (e.g., pastries) or with no odor. It was found that women agreed more often to the confederate's courtship solicitation in the pleasant-smelling areas. Research has also found that women exposed to music with romantic lyrics reacted more positively to a courtship request by a man than women exposed to music with neutral lyrics (Guéguen, Jacob, & Lamy, 2010). It has also been found that women exposed to flowers in their immediate environment are more receptive to a courtship request by a man (Guéguen, 2011), and Haviland-Jones, Rosario, Wilson, and McGuire (2005) have found that flowers enhance women's positive emotions and social behavior. Thus, overall, these studies seem to show that romantic feelings and social relationship are influenced by positive environmental factors. Accordingly it was hypothesized that women would be more receptive to a courtship request on sunny days than on cloudy days.

Method

Participants

The participants were 500 young women between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 21.7 years, SD = 1.4) chosen at random while they were walking alone in pedestrian streets.

Procedure

This experiment was approved by the ethical committee of the laboratory (CRPCC-LESTIC EA 1285). Five 20-year-old confederates were used in this experiment. All were undergraduate students in business. The physical attractiveness of the confederates was previously evaluated by a group of 31 young women who were instructed to examine photographs of the faces of 18 male volunteers and to rate their attractiveness on a numerical scale ranging from 1 (low level of physical attractiveness) to 10 (high level of physical attractiveness). All of the men stated that they were heterosexual. The five men with the highest average physical attractiveness scores (from 7.68 to 8.09) were recruited as confederates. No statistical differences were found between the mean attractiveness of these five volunteers, F(4, 151) = 1.91, p = .11. The control of attractiveness was used because it was shown in previous experiments (Guéguen, 2007, 2012) that it is difficult to obtain phone numbers from young women in the street. This avoided creating conditions in which the ceiling effect of compliance was low. The confederates were blind to the objective of the experiment and the hypothesis. They were only instructed to approach young women in different pedestrian streets and to obtain their phone numbers.

The participants were tested while walking alone. The experiment was conducted in two towns near the Atlantic coast in France during the same period (end of May and beginning of June). In these two towns people on holiday traditionally arrive 1 month later at the beginning of July. In this way we prevented possible sample bias by asking only vacationers whose behavior could be more readily influenced by the weather conditions. The experiment was conducted on sunny and cloudy days from 9 am to 1 pm. However, care was taken not to conduct the experiment when it rained. Care was also taken to avoid significant variation in external temperatures, and the experiment was conducted when the temperature was between 18 and 22°C. This was possible given the fact that the two towns where the experiment was conducted are associated with modest variation in external temperature during the morning when the sky is cloudy. This was explained by the presence of the sea which prevents large drops in external temperature.

To obtain better control of the weather conditions additional pedestrians, who were not approached by the confederates, were asked to evaluate the sky with the help of a scale ranging from 1 (cloudy) to 9 (sunny). This evaluation was done by two assistants who were not used as confederates. Of course, in order to prevent the confederates from guessing the objective of the study, they were not present during this phase of the evaluation. We decided to perform the study with the confederates only when the mean of the pedestrian ratings was from 1 to 3 (cloudy days) or from 7 to 9 (sunny days). Precaution was also taken not to conduct the experiment just after a rainy period and to exclude data obtained if it rained several hours after the testing period. However, such events did not occur.

The experiment was conducted during a period where the confederates and their classmates were participating in several studies and surveys in accordance with the content of their training courses. If the weather conditions were good for the experiment these confederates were asked to proceed. Otherwise they were asked to participate in a phone survey on food habits conducted at the same time. Of course, no justification was offered to the confederates as to why they had to participate in the courtship study some mornings and in the survey study during others.

Each confederate was instructed to walk slowly in the different experimental areas and to approach with a smile the first woman he encountered in the estimated age range of 18 to 25. The same solicitation was made by each confederate:

Hello. My name's Antoine. I just want to say that I think you’re really pretty. I have to go to work this afternoon, and I was wondering if you would give me your phone number. I’ll phone you later and we can have a drink together someplace.

The phone number was solicited because a previous study carried out in France (Guéguen, 2007) showed that this request made in the street is clearly seen by women as a courtship solicitation. Moreover, this solicitation was accompanied by another request (to have a drink) which was also previously evaluated as a courtship solicitation.

After making his request, the confederate was instructed to wait 10 seconds, and to gaze and smile at the participant. If the participant accepted the confederate's solicitation the confederate noted her phone number, said, “See you soon,” and left the participant. If the participant refused, the confederate was instructed to say, “Too bad. It's not my day. Have a nice afternoon!” and to leave the participant. Just before leaving the participant, the confederate asked her for her age (whether she had responded positively to his request or not). All agreed to give this information.

At the end of the study, care was taken to evaluate the confederates’ possible suspicion of the real objective of the study. None of them reported weather conditions as a possible explanation. All reported that the objective was just to evaluate how many women agreed to give their phone number to an unknown young man of their age.

In both weather conditions participants who gave their phone number to the confederates were fully debriefed by phone contact. Each woman was told that she had participated in an experiment on social behavior, in which her behavioral response of a young woman to a young man's courtship solicitation was measured. This information was given in compliance with the recommendation of the ethical committee of the laboratory which reviewed the project. Each participant was also given further information including the name and address of the laboratory web site, as well as the personal phone number of the director of the laboratory. To date, no participant has phoned to obtain information about this research.

Results

Descriptive statistics, including the age of participants, confederate attractiveness score, temperature, and compliance with the courtship request according to weather condition, are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Mean age of participants, confederate attractiveness score, temperature, and compliance with the courtship request according to weather condition

	Sunnier days N = 241	Cloudier days N = 259
Age of participants	21.67	21.73
Confederate attractiveness	7.92	7.90
External temperature	20.16	20.06
Compliance with the request	22.4%	13.9%

We performed a binary logistic regression using the compliance with the courtship request as the dichotomous criterion variable, and the weather, age of the participant, confederate's attractiveness score, and temperature as predictor variables. The analysis reveals that the independent variables, taken together, had a significant effect on the interview outcome, χ²(4) = 10.04, p = .04. The Nagelkerke R Square shows that the combined effect of the weather, age of participants, confederate's attractiveness score, and temperature accounts for about 67% of the variation in compliance. Two predictor variables were significant. The weather appeared to be a significant predictor—β = .576, ES(β) = .238, Wald (1) = 5.85, p = .016—revealing that, overall, more compliance with the courtship request was obtained in the sunny-day condition than in the cloudy-day condition. The age of participants also appeared to be significant—β = −.165, ES(β) = .083, Wald (1) = 3.83, p = .050—revealing that, overall, young women are more ready to give their phone numbers than women who are not as young. Neither the temperature, β = −.0284, ES(β) = .122, Wald (1) = 0.54, p = .816, nor the confederate's attractiveness score, β = .178, ES(β) = .849, Wald (1) = 0.44, p = .834, appeared significant. Interaction between the weather and age of participants, β = .0.34, ES(β) = .171, Wald (1) = 0.40, p = .842, the weather and temperature, β = .148, ES(β) = .250, Wald (1) = 0.35, p = .554, and the weather and confederate's attractiveness score, β = .398, ES(β) = 1.754, Wald (1) = 0.05, p = .821, were not significant, attesting that the overall effect of the weather was not explained by the temperature, age of participants, or attractiveness of the confederates.

Discussion

Young women were more likely to give their phone number to a young man when solicited during sunny days. These results extend those reported in previous studies which found that sun fosters positive social relationships (Cunningham, 1979). However, in Cunningham's study only helping behavior was addressed, whereas in this experiment courtship behavior was evaluated. Receptivity to a courtship request is clearly a different process than receptivity to a request for help. Indeed, further research found that sun was not always associated with an increase in helping behavior. Contrary to the results found by Cunningham (1979, Study 2), Flynn and Greenberg (2010), using a very large sample size (11,766 observations compared to 130 in Cunningham's study), failed to observe a sun effect on tipping. These positive effects of sun on courtship behavior are congruent with further research which found that environmental factors can influence women's receptivity to a courtship request. Guéguen (2012) reported that women who were solicited as they were walking in shopping mall areas with pleasant ambient odors (e.g., pastries) were more likely to accept a courtship request than women approached in areas with no odor. To explain these results the author argued that pleasant ambient odors surrounding women probably elicited a positive mood, which in turn affected receptivity to the courtship solicitation. Guéguen (2011) clearly found that positive mood was associated with women's receptivity to a courtship request. In our study it could also be stated that the women's behavior was mediated by a positive mood probably induced by the sun. Several studies have found that people reported having a positive mood on sunnier days (Cunningham, 1979; Denissen et al, 2008; Keller et al., 2005). Thus in the present experiment it could be argued that women accepted the confederate's request more favorably on sunny days because they were in a positive mood when solicited. These results also supported the notion that receptivity to a courtship request addressed by a man to a woman is influenced by environmental factors. Guéguen (2012) reported that pleasant odors facilitated women's receptivity to courtship solicitation addressed by men, while positive mood has also been found to be associated with women's receptivity to such solicitation (Guéguen, 2011). Our results supported the notion that weather is also a positive factor that influences receptivity to courtship requests. Thus it seems that this line of research focusing on environmental factors in courtship is promising for the future.

This experiment has some limitations. The male confederates were not informed about the real objective of the study or previous research on this topic. Precaution was taken to evaluate the confederates’ possible suspicion of the real objective of the study. The confederates reported no suspicion. However, they might have unconsciously behaved differently according to the weather conditions, which in turn could have influenced their behavior and then the women's reaction to their courtship solicitation. In this study precaution was taken to control for external temperature and not to experiment on rainy days. However further variables that could have had an influence on women's responses are difficult to control (air humidity, wind etc.).

In this study we examined the receptivity of women to a courtship request by a man because it was conducted in France where men traditionally approach women in romantic relationships. However, it could be interesting to explore if male courtship is also influenced by weather. For example, are men in the street more likely to look at women around them or to approach women on sunny rather than cloudy days?

Acknowledgments