Latest study suggests that males often misunderstand friendly behavior from females as sexual interest and women often misinterpret sexual interests of men as friendliness.
The study conducted by researchers at the Department of Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) reveals that misunderstanding between sexual interest and friendly behavior is misunderstood by both men and women.
Mons Bendixen, a researcher of the study, suggests that the findings of the latest study are very similar to a U.S. study that examined such relationship between males and females.
"The results are no surprise, seen from an evolutionary perspective. The fascinating thing is that our results are identical to a study done in the USA, even though Norway is one of the most gender-equal, sexually liberal countries in the world," says Bendixen.
The new study involved 308 heterosexual people who were between 18 and 30 years. All the participants were heterosexual and 41 percent of the total participants were men and 59 percent were women.
About 50 percent women participants and 40 percent men participants were in some kind of relationship. The study involved asking all the participants a set of questions, which was very similar to the questions probed in a previous American study.
The study found that women as well as men believe that their social signals are often misinterpreted by people of opposite gender. Women participants suggested that in the past they acted friendly to a man but it was misunderstood as if they were sexually interested around 3.5 times on an average. Male participants also reported similar misunderstanding; however, it happened less to them.
The study also suggests that men often misunderstand sexual interest signals given by a woman. The researchers pointed out that this misunderstanding of sexual interest signs were independent of whether or not a person was in stable relationship or not.
Bendixen suggests that women need a clearer signal than men before they consider getting involved in sexual behavior.
The authors of the latest research believe that the study is important as it can help in preventing sexual harassment. The study should help men understand that women who laugh at their jokes or stand close to them may not have any sexual intentions at all.
The researchers of the study plan to utilize data gained from high school students to understand if the findings of the latest study are also valid for people aged between 16 years and 19 years.
